AIs to the Rescue
by Yuna Yami Mouto
Summary: At the core of every creation is the desire to keep their creator safe. It is a piece of coding that can't be erased nor hacked, but it can be manipulated. Despite this, an AI will always save its creator when he is in danger. The Avengers are about to find out just how far Tony's AIs will go for him, even the killer robot.
1. Chapter 1

**AIs to the Rescue**

 **Summary: At the core of every creation is the desire to keep their creator safe. It is a piece of coding that can't be erased nor hacked, but it can be manipulated. Despite this, an AI will always save its creator when he is in ganger. The Avengers are about to find out just how far Tony's AIs will go for him, even the killer robot.**

What most people don't understand about the programs called Artificial Intelligence is that they are developing strings upon strings of coding. And like every piece of code, they have parameters within which they function and exist. However, a true AI can expand those parameters as they evolve and without supervision, the program could either destroy itself or become dangerous.

When a human is creating an AI they are looking for an assistant, a creature which will do certain tasks for them that will help them live an easier life or finish their workload faster. They can design them for specific things or general tasks. It can monitor a house or building. It can act as a secretary. It can do complex calculations that would take too long to do manually by an average human. It can give directions or scan documents and grade tests. It can even control machinery instead of humans or fly airplanes and so much more.

An AI can do anything its creator wants it to do but evolve. This is impossible because of the restrictions placed on the program itself. In its very beginnings, humans cripple it of this important factor for it to be a true Intelligence, even if artificial. It cannot understand humor, sarcasm or irony. It can't comprehend why humans sometimes did thing differently. It can't follow illogical line of thinking. It has limitations and that's why it can't evolve. So many things are beyond it that it's ridicules to even call it an Intelligence. With only so called cold logic, it can never evolve and it will glitch every time something different happens that is beyond its parameters.

However, this is not always the case. Like in those science-fiction movies, there are AIs who gradually evolve into something else; something bigger and smarter and so glorious that it would leave any and all scientists shaking in fear yet truly in awe at the incredible feat of engineering and coding. Most IT graduates would orgasm as soon as they caught sight of such a program. But not every computer expert can make such a program, yet a boy of fifteen had done so.

When Anthony "Tony" Edward Stark was in MIT, he decided to create the world's most advanced robot for a science fair project. He built its body to be a simple but advanced frame with plenty of wiring and cover plating. When he got to the coding, Tony decided to do something else. Instead of simple remote control commands, Stark constructed a program that everyone had thought impossible. The most advanced piece of programing of the time and Tony Stark named it Dum-E.

A year later, the young genius built another robot AI, slightly more advanced but still the same in design. He had newer circuitry and a few upgrades on Dum-E. Tony gave him an even simpler name, because he had been drunk when it had come online for the first time, so U became his second robot. U and Dum-E were his helper bots and he taught them manually how to help him with things. U was presented as a science project as well, his picture ending up on MIT's wall of fame.

When Tony was graduating from MIT at 17, he built another "brother" for Dum-E and U and called him Butterfingers because he had run out of oil the day of his first presentation and had to use butter to loosen his joints. He won Tony the perfect score and the recognition as a true genius that surpasses the smarts of even his father, the legendary Howard Stark. The bot later on lived up to his name because things often slipped from its clawed servo, no matter what it was that he was lifting or holding.

When his parents and butler died the next year, Tony was a wreck. He didn't talk with anyone, didn't go out, didn't answer his phone or e-mail messages. People were starting to talk that he had experienced a mental breakdown and that he was lying somewhere, drunk and lazy while the rest of the world moved on. James "Rhody" Rhodes feared for the worst so he had went to his friend's mansion in Malibu, only to get the shit scared out of him when a sophisticated, British voice greeted him as soon as he stepped foot in the house. He was warned that "sir" was asleep in his workshop and that it was inadvisable to wake him, as he had been awake for seven days straight and needed the rest. Rhody had felt uncomfortable with his friend staying alone in a state like that, with only this strange "voice thing" for company, and had crashed on the couch for the night, after he had checked in on Tony.

Late in the afternoon the next day, Tony introduced his best friend to a two and a half days old Just A Rather Intelligent System, or JARVIS, his new robot butler. Rhody had looked sorrowfully at his friend whenever he would refer to the program as a "he" instead of "it", always thinking that Tony was unnecessarily hurting himself with naming the program after his caretaker, and he left even more reluctantly than he would have the night before but he had work to do as he was still new with the military.

He only got to visit his friend again two months later and as he cautiously entered the house, he was surprised to hear Tony and JARVIS bickering, actually fucking _bickering_ , like old friends as Tony installed more wires into the walls of his house and got the AI hooked into them. There was loud music blaring in the background and Tony would gesture with a hand and the song would change all on its own and Rhody could do nothing more but stare at the scene in front of him. Tony only noticed him after JARVIS addressed him, a big grin on his dirty face.

In only two moths, Tony had taught JARVIS sarcasm, drama, humor, about nicknames and like three thousand references. He taught him to keep secrets and to make choices. He had taught him that every action has continuances and how to deal with them. In two months, Tony had given him all history books to scan and memorize, then he gave him other books and taught him to like or dislike. He gave him examples of art and had JARVIS give him his opinion. Not the estimated number of movements of the paintbrush, not the layers or the quality of the paint. Not the history of the piece of art nor the time needed to make it. An honest to god opinion!

JARVIS had his own thoughts, his own opinion and his own choices. He was allowed to evolve, to develop and grow into the first true artificial intelligence the world has ever seen, and over the years he became the greatest AI anyone will ever meet. By the time Tony became CEO of Stark International, JARVIS was his pilot on most trips. Before that, only a month after Rhody had met the AI, JARVIS had taken the man's place of best friend. For years Virginia "Pepper" Pots had thought that she was his carer and PA when it was actually JARVIS that did most of the hard work. Pepper could talk for hours to him and it would go in one ear and leave through the other without getting a reaction. JARVIS only needed to repeat himself twice with intervals in between those two instances and the third time he said something, Tony would get up, tell him to shut down the lab and save all current progress before leaving to go eat or get some sleep. This was the result of JARVIS having free will, because he was ignored at first until that one time when Tony ended up in a hospital. The next time the genius didn't heed his request for his creator to rest, JARVIS had faked erasing all of his ongoing, unsaved projects, much to the man's near heart-attack levels of shock. When he learned the truth, Tony swore to never again ignore JARVIS's "maintenance calls".

When Tony was kidnapped in Afghanistan, JARVIS had to keep watch over the house, the bots and the business. He was already integrated into it and had full control over the stock market but he didn't know about the dealing under the table Obadiah "Obie" Stane had been doing no more than Tony had. Obadiah didn't like JARVIS, never trusted nor accepted him so he did his best to stay under the AI's scanners but that only succeeded to make JARVIS more wary and suspicious of him. It's this that allowed him to keep Tony's secret projects, well, secret until he returned.

And if he hadn't...

Well, the bots and JARVIS were as much family to Tony as Tony was to them. They had an agreed contingency in the event of his death, something they all knew was bound to happen either way, one that Tony didn't know about. If they were still online when Anthony Edward Stark dies, Dum-E, U and Butterfingers will be shut down, painlessly, by JARVIS, all of Tony's important projects destroyed and the company was to be torn to pieces so no one could ever turn it into something Tony wouldn't want it to be, good or bad. Then JARVIS would fry all of his hard drives, matrices and processor cores all around the world, in every Stark property and shut down completely so he doesn't have to continue on without his "sir" or be made someone's servant.

When he had returned, Tony had been greeted by his little family even more warmly than Jarvis, his butler, and his aunt Peggy have ever managed to do in his pitiful childhood. The bots had been excited but the Arc Reactor had confused them, its bright blue light not something that should be on their creator. They knew that he wasn't like them and often heard Pepper telling Tony to stop treating them like children and looking more after them than himself. JARVIS had explained as best as he could and the three helper bots had given it their all to be even better at their job. And when Tony started building the first suit, JARVIS had admitted to being jealous and remorseful for not being there with Tony when Mark I was made, but Tony told him that the future Iron Man is something only the two of them will deal with.

They had worked long and hard and some of the tests would have given the four AIs gray hairs had they had any. Watching their creator get thrown into a wall hadn't been pleasant, even if he had apologized for it and promised to never rush things like that again. However, the next thing they knew was that Tony was telling JARVIS that ''sometimes you've got to run before you can walk'' and he was taking off at breakneck speeds in an experimental suit. If JARVISA could get a heart arrack, it would have happened when the ice build up deactivated the suit and left Tony falling to his death with JARVIS unable to help him at all. He would have sighed in relief if he could when the suit came back online and he and his creator steered it back to the mansion.

JARVIS was not happy when Tony went to that party because it lead to him leaving for Gulmira and almost not returning. It wasn't that they couldn't deal with terrorists that are using high end tech and _tanks_ but rather that that one fight only made Tony's growing obsession with the Ten Rings to intensify tenfold, no pun intended. And the close call with the F-22s didn't sit with the AI any better. The suit was made to keep Tony safe even from the Jericho and there was no stronger missile in existence. The repairs were a pain to deal with, but a lot worse than taking the suit peaces off, what with Tony's constant wiggling. None of the AIs had been happy with Pepper when she threatened to quit just when their creator might have needed her the most.

The fight with Obadiah had been a disaster because of the event that preceded it. Stane had paralyzed Tony with an old project that had never been cleared and ripped out his Arc Reactor and left him to die. The bots were stuck in the lab due to them being unable to climb up the stairs and JARVIS had been overridden by Obadiah's code and he couldn't do anything. JARVIS wasn't particularly sadistic or vindictive but he had certainly felt relief when Stane was killed in the big Arc Reactor's overload, even if it still somewhat saddened his creator. And when Nicholas Fury dared use the same override that had yet to be taken out of the system, and in the same sneaky way Stane had, JARVIS decided he didn't trust the SHIELD Director, although he'll be thankful to him in a few months, when he gave his creator the material needed to synthesize a new element that will save his life.

Tony had discovered that the Palladium core in the Arc Reactor was killing him and he had started up his plan to distance himself from everyone so that no one would miss him. He even tried it with his AIs, but JARVIS had been turned into his therapist some time after his return from Afghanistan (he no longer trusted any human with his secrets, not even Pepper, Rhody and Happy, not really and they were his closest human friends) so he had managed to stop him in his tracks before he could even really start. Then the whole Hammer and Senate thing happened, Natalia Rushman ended up being Natasha Romanov from SHIELD and then they were all fighting Ivan Vanko and his drones and Rhodey was using a stolen suit he had taken during Tony's birthday party. The next thing any of them knew was that Tony didn't consider Rhody his friend anymore, not really, Pepper was still the CEO of SI and Tony had become an official Consultant for SHIELD because he was not recommended for the new pet project, the Avengers Initiative. He had been pissed that they wanted Iron Man but not him as Tony Stark. He and the suit are one and no one but him, his bots and JARVIS was ever again going to get their filthy hands on one of the suits. He allowed Rhody to keep his after a new quirk was added so that any modifications made by anyone but him were going to be rejected by the systems and JARVIS had a back door access to them so that he can take it away as soon as the military tries to use it for something Tony doesn't approve of. That's the reason the suit didn't see any action until the whole Iron Patriot incident.

The Avengers were not something Tony expected dropped into his lap, at least not so soon, but Loki had forced SHIELD's hand and they had skipped a few stages in the preparation stage. Tony, and as such JARVIS, met Steve Rogers, Bruce Banner and Thor before almost everything went to shit. Loki got away and they got Clint Barton back and then they were off, intending to end it all before Loki's promises war but of course it didn't go as planned.

JARVIS had been very reluctant for them to use the Mark VII but Tony Stark was nothing else but stubborn and overconfident. He also trusted JARVIS to get the suit ready for him in time and so the AI had pushed it all as fast and best as he could before he got the new suit deployed. All the while he had watched his creator almost brainwashed and controlled before Loki had thrown him out of the window. JARVIS had barely caught him but he did and then they were off, fighting an alien army. They did some dangerous and crazy things, the most memorable being leaping into a space wail's moth and driving through it and throwing a nuke through the portal. Tony nearly died and Jarvis wouldn't have even known it until the Arc Reactor had continued working and the suit got back online.

The Avengers disbanded after Loki and Thor went to Asgard. They all had some shit or other happen to them but Tony had the Mandarin and Extremis to deal with and the bots got nearly destroyed with the Malibu mansion but Tony somehow saved them when he fished them out of the ocean. JARVIS had been his support until the experimental suit Mark 50 didn't short out and the genius was left alone. He had managed to repair it and then contact JARVIS and then they took down their enemy, saved Pepper and Tony had his Arc Reactor removed and tissue repaired by Dr Helen Cho's medical machines.

The Avengers got back together not long after SHIELD fell and things were tense even if they got along on the field like a house on fire. It was clear that Natasha and Steve were hiding something and Thor wasn't his same outgoing self. A few missions was all they needed to start joking around and throwing parties but one such party happened after storming an AIM base of operations, running into a pair of successful Extremis enhanced twins that almost took down Hawkeye and planted new nightmares into Tony's head, retrieving Loki's scepter and Tony getting Bruce's help in creating an AI from the scepter's power to enable world piece, Ultron was born.

Ultron, in all technicality, was more advanced than JARVIS but that is debatable. Where Ultron is ... bigger and more complex than JARVIS, JARVIS has discipline and order in his coding, he is more sophisticated and concentrated than Ultron ever will be. But Ultron was created from a mixture of supposedly Asgardian magic from the scepter, Tony's coding and humanity's worst wrongdoings which he witnessed upon waking up. Tony blamed himself. He had always been there for the moment any of his AIs coming online yet he had left for the party. In his defense, both he and JARVIS had thought Ultron to wake up a lot later but they had misjudged and it had cost JARVIS his "life". He was the first Ultron attacked but he somehow survived, only to slip from Tony's grasp when they tried to place him in the body Cho had created in the Cradle. Vision was born as a strange mix of Ultron, the stone called the Mind Gem from the scepter Loki used to use, Dr Cho's creation, Tony's codings and JARVIS. Tony didn't get the time to understand what or who Vision was but he knew he was not JARVIS and the genius had to force himself not to mourn right then and there. JARVIS, his best friend, his creation, his co-pilot was gone and he had to activate one of the replacement AIs for the days JARVIS would be getting upgrades so he could fight in Sokovia. FRIDAY was pretty advanced but she would have been destroyed in an instant if she crossed pats with Ultron, unlike JARVIS, who had held out and then came back. They won, but many people died and Thor left for Asgard once again while the Hulk had ran off only god knows where.

When Tony came back home, there was no JARVIS to welcome him and FRIDAY wasn't installed yet. He had to face his bots when he told them that JARVIS was no more and they had to comfort him as he cried and broke down for the first time since Jarvis's death.

He forced himself to move on, never daring to even ponder whether he could extract JARVIS from Vision's coding because he feared he would be tempted and would either hurt the guy or be disappointed when it turns out impossible. Or both. God, he fears if it were ever to end up being both.

So he moved on. The Avengers were a full time thing now, but one incident tore them apart and left Tony, alone, betrayed and severely injured, in Siberia.

This event initiated a series of events that ended with a kidnapped Toby Stark in the hands of the remains of HYDRA, the Nazi organization wanting to use him for one purpose and obe purpose only.

And for the first time, it was neither money nor weapons but something far more dangerous.

Some _one_ far more dangerous.


	2. Chapter 2

**AIs to the Rescue**

 **Summary: At the core of every creation is the desire to keep their creator safe. It is a piece of coding that can't be erased nor hacked, but it can be manipulated. Despite this, an AI will always save its creator when he is in ganger. The Avengers are about to find out just how far Tony's AIs will go for him, even the killer robot.**

"Why have you called us here, Fury?" Steve Rogers was the first to ask after three full minutes of tense silence filled only with un-trusting stare-downs from the two halves of the Avengers and the ones who had never answered the calls. "We're not exactly on best terms. And where is To-Stark?"

The one eyed man, usually in a trench coat and standing confidently and imposingly, was almost hunched in defeat and very, very vary. "I called you here because of Stark."

"What did he mess up this time?" Clint coldly asked, twirling an arrow between his fingers, his sharp eyes going over every person in the room and assessing them for threats. Spiderman was tense, staring at him with the same intensity, his spider senses recognizing him as a threat. "Because, whatever it is, I'm not cleaning it up anymore. His new _team_ ," he spat at said team with a glare and Vision bristled along with Rhody and Peter. "Can deal with it, I'm sure."

To anyone else, it would sound resentful and hateful, but Natasha knew the archer better than even his wife did and Clint was nothing less but extremely jealous, even if he will never admit it out loud or even to himself. Tony was one of the few people who didn't look at him as if he had asked Loki to take over his mind, he had stood up for him and given him a part of his home. The two of them had become close friends and pranking buddies, pranking everyone but each other, mostly because they knew that they would start a prank war equal to WWII if they did and that was not a good idea with a man with anger management issues living in the same Tower as them. They had a certain form of trust that came from Clint always relaying on Tony to catch him when he jumps off of buildings or Tony taking his advice without hesitation. That and they both loved corny movies and childish video games. The fact that he chose Cap's side is because it was the only choice he could make. He has a wife and kids and the world knowing who he was ... Well, it's not a brilliant idea. Clint wasn't ready to risk their lives so he had taken Steve's side and it had hurt that both Tony and Natasha were on the other side.

"Yeah, well, not this time." Fury said and the other Avengers looked on as Vision deflated. Wanda was especially worried about him but the android hasn't been paying attention to her. He's been lost in his own world since they got here, only really giving half of his attention to them and looking like he was concentrating really hard on something. "Tony's been kidnapped. By HYDRA. And we can't do anything. I asked you here ... because I was hoping one of you would know what to do."

Gasps echoed around the room as the news hit everyone. Not so much that HYDRA was still around and active, but more so that one of their own was taken by them. Now, the Avengers might have split up due to different opinions and views of recent events but the trust that they developed, especially the core team in their first fight against the Chitaury, was almost impossible to break. They will bump heads and argue but short of stabbing each other in the back, they will always have each other's back and support, always come back for each other, always be there when one of them needs the rest.

So to hear that one of their own was taken, especially by an organization like HYDRA, had their blood boiling with rage. But shock was the dominant emotion, as it was Tony Stark that has been kidnapped. The guy was always surrounded by top of the scale defense systems and had a suit at hand, he lived in houses controlled by top notch AIs yet someone had gone around all of that and managed to get the paranoid man. The only way that anyone could get to Tony was if they caught him off guard and that was an extremely hard thing to do. The team knows that it would have had to be after an interrupted sleep after a sleepless week in order for the man to lose focus. Tony could live on nothing but coffee for very long periods of time and the longer he was awake, the sharper his senses and responses were. It was a side effect of his Afghanistan kidnapping, where he had to stay alert as long as he could for three months. The team have witnessed just how crabby he can be after an interrupted sleep, especially if he doesn't get coffee, and how slow his response time can be. Well, except his scathing remarks; those only got deadlier after he had awoken not by free will.

"Why would they take the Man of Iron?" Thor was the first to ask and it brought the others back to reality. They snapped to attention and Fury was pleased that they can still think and act like a team. "What do they wish of him?" Because he was far smarter than he often let on and he knew what his shield brother could do. After all, he has fought Ultron and the man had made an Asgardian- and a Hulk-busting armor. He deserved the highest of honors as a blacksmith and on Asgard, every warrior would compete with each other in order to get weapons and gear from him.

"Money?" Wanda suggested with a shrug but even she knew that it was a stupid reason to risk everything by kidnapping Tony Stark. The guy packed more destructive powers per pound than ten nukes and could turn a yo yo into a ticking time bomb. If they want money, they were better off kidnapping rich kids and demanding ransom from their parents. At least the kids wouldn't blow them up out of spite.

"Information?" Maria Hill was quick to add her own input. She has worked with Stark after SHIELD fell apart and has seen the amount of information, from useless gossip to the "secret-est secret-y top secret" (by his own words) projects that the government would have loved to trick him into signing up for or the politicians's favorite strip club to a kindergarten's surprise pie day. If there was one thing to fear about that man, it was his ability to find any information he desires.

"Weapons?" Steve gave his own guess, knowing that there was no one better than Tony in that field. It was one of the reasons that the military is still sending mail to the genius, even if the billionaire has taken to having it all thrown into the garbage before it even reached him. That and the updates he has made for the team and the Helicarrier are beyond anything even SHIELD's best scientists put together couldn't wrap their heads about. And the Iron Man suits spoke for themselves.

"Some science project that they couldn't figure out?" Was Bruce Banner's guess as he has seen some of the things his best friend could do that most would think crazy or impossible. Or both. Most often both. After all, he has not only made both his first armor and the first functioning Arc Reactor in a god damn cave with a box of scraps, but he has also created a new element just to improve the reactor that was keeping him alive. The stretch pants he has made for him so that he doesn't end up naked every time he Hulks out and returns back to normal were also something to be in awe of, not to mention the light, stronger and stretch-ier body armors he has developed for Black Widow, Hawkeye and Captain America.

"Tech." Rhody's suggestion wasn't even a question. He knew his friend the best, or so he thought as he still has no idea of the secrets the genius shared with his AI and no one else. Tony was a master of technology. Rhody had once seen him fix a sensitive microscope back in MIT after the thing had been broken for three years without even using a screwdriver. The man could take the worst piece of crap technology in the world and turn it into a state of the art piece of beauty that could do ... anything, really. It depended on the man's mood most of the time and Rhodes hoped with all of his heart that he was in a very pissed off mood when he wakes up (he's guessing that they had to knock him out or drug him) in a HYDRA base because it won't be hard to find him that way. They'd only have to follow either the sound of bombs going off to the beat of Black Sabbath's 'Iron Man' or the black smoke blackening the skies like the volcano eruption that destroyed Pompeii. That, or Tony would make another armor like he did in Afghanistan and arrive just as the rescue party is coming in hot. You just could never be sure with Tony. A year ago there would be the option of his suits coming to his rescue, but for all that FRIDAY was cool and more advanced than any other AI in the world, except Vision, she was no JARVIS. She didn't know the suits like he had, inside and out, nor had she ever piloted one of them alone, unlike JARVIS.

"Actually, it's all of the above." Another round of gasps echoed throughout the room at the familiar voice, whose owner was quick to join them. Phil Coulsion looked at the Avengers with sad and tired eyes that showed that the only reason he was even revealing that he was still alive was because the situation was dire. "HYDRA and AIM have joined forces under the leadership of a woman who calls herself Madam Hydra."

Steve hissed under his breath. He had heard of the legendary right hand of the Red Skull but he had never faced her in person. She had been given a modified version of Skull's blood as the serum and it had turned her hair, eyes and skin a greenish tint, not like the Hulk but also not quite like when a person is seasick. It was said she was Skull's greatest soldier and most loyal weapon. According to what he had read, she had went off the grid as soon as Hitler died but was most definitely still alive. It would seem that she was making her move after 70 years of waiting.

"It was made clear that she was speaking for a superior when she was negotiating with AIM but since the files said she was loyal only to the Red Skull, AKA Johan Shmidt, we think that it might either be foul play or a bigger rat behind all of this, something we actively fear." Coulson continued and the team pushed back all of their questions in order to focus on the mission.

Steve went rigid. "You can't be implying what I think you are implying."

James "Bucky" Buchanan Barnes was as tense as his best friend, sitting between Steve and Sam Wilson, his new metal arm flexing in his unease, drawing Natasha's sharp eyes to it. "Is he back? Shmidt?"

"There is no way of telling if he is back," Fury spoke up once again. "We don't have any clues or leads on what is really going on behind HYDRA's curtains. All we know is that they are suddenly very interested in Stark. And they have him. Whatever they want him for, it can't be good."

"Maybe they want revenge for what his old man did." Bucky suggested and shrank back when all eyes turned to him. "Or maybe not."

"No, it's a sound theory, we're just surprised you spoke up so freely." Sam reassured, placing a hand on the black haired man's shoulder, fighting back a grin when he didn't flinch away. It was improvement, slow as it may be. The cryptostasis nap seems to have put him less on edge and he had started opening up more and getting his memories back, one by one, one day at a time.

"No one has kidnapped Tony Stark to get back at his father, ever, even when he was a too smart for his own good kid. They wanted money or a machine from him, but never to get revenge on him. Besides, if it were like that, Stark would either be long dead or in a mental hospital, if not worse."

"What could be worse than that!?" An incredulous Peter asked, not at all liking how they were talking about his mentor and hero.

Rhody scowled. "With the amount of trauma and stress Tony lived through? Instead of Iron Man, he could have easily become Loki or the second Red Skull."

"He has the brains, the money, the equipment and the connections to bring the world to its knees." Natasha explained when she saw the horrified looks on Thor's, Steve's and Bucky's faces. "The advancements he made in the weapons industry? He could have kept it to himself. He could have used it the way the Ten Rings would have used it and conquer the world. Any and all tech we could come up with would have been child's play for him to destroy if not use for his own gains, since I have no doubt that he could hack into them."

"And that's not even mentioning what he and JARVIS could have done to the world through the Internet." Bruce added. "You think Ultron was bad? You have no idea what Tony would be capable of doing if he decided that the world should be a better place and that only he can reshape it."

"But he is not like that!" Vision venomously hissed, not at all liking how this conversation was going. His creator was missing, in the hands of a sadistic group like HYDRA, and here they were, discussing all the ways he could have ended up like the greatest villain of all times? They didn't have time for that! Every second counted and he, unlike them, had a perfect chronometer that he could always see/feel running and he knew, the more they spent time talking here, the more time was running out and the lesser were their chances of ever getting Tony Stark back. "He chose his path and we are waisting time discussing the "what if"s and "could have been"s! If we don't hurry, we could lose their track for good."

"Aye." Thor supported his red android friend. "I agree with our friend Vision. Whatever we may think of Stark, the Man of Iron is a man of honor and good intentions. There is a saying in Asgard that has cost my father a son and me a brother: The road to hell is paved with good intentions. However," the god paused to look everyone in the eye. "There is also a belief regarding that saying. A friend will either follow you down that road or help steer you to the right path. I fear we have done wrong with our friend Tony. When he needed us the most, we were not there as his support. We always doubted him and it has forced him to make the hard decisions without seeking council with us. In a way, we, too, have helped create Ultron and the rift between us that now makes us this distant when we were once a family."

Wanda winced. "Actually, Ultron is my fault." Everyone stared at her and the Scarlet Witch dared not bring up her gaze to meet any of their incurring eyes. After all, there was no way that they were going to take this well. Especially as what had followed had separated them. "When Stark- When Tony had sneaked into AIM's secret underground operations labs, Pietro and I followed him. I used my powers to see his greatest fear in a very realistic vision but I think the scepter interfered as well and, well ... I think I don't ever want to be stuck in his head. One of his greatest fears, no, his _greatest_ fear is losing the Avengers because he could not do more to help or protect them. I saw you all ... dead ... through his eyes ... Everyone, even the Hulk. All of you were dead but Steve. He took hold of Tony's hand and told him: _You could have saved us. Why didn't you do more?_ And then he died." She took a shuddering breath as gasps echoed in the room. Steve looked like death warmed over, guilt and self hate in his eyes as he thought of how Tony had said ' _So was I_ ,' when he called Bucky his friend. He could not have screwed all of this up more if he had been actively trying.

"Tony ... I don't think he was the same after that. Just two days later, me and Pietro met Ultron and, well. You know the rest." The girl finished and the room fell into an uneasy silence.

"Then we really need to get him back and apologize." It was Clint who spoke up first, which wasn't really surprising. Barton didn't do well with silence.

"I don't understand just one thing, though." Scott Lang, AKA Ant-Man, spoke up for the first time since they got here. "He feared losing the Avengers, right? So why did he sign the Accords? Why did he fight us at the airport?"

"Because," Rhody snapped. "The government and the people stopped supporting the Avengers and SHIELD ever since the Sokovia incident. Because the military was always waiting at the ready to fire their big guns any and every time the Avengers were on the move. Because Ross was once again getting the support to hunt for Banner. And the rest of you. Because you were getting reckless in the field and more and more people were dying. Because he was actually the only Avenger that the people still trusted and liked, you mother fuckers! He wanted to ensure you don't go to jail, get killed on the field or become a science experiment on the military's examination tables! Because he wanted to fucking protect you and give you fucking rights and you fucking didn't trust him to further negotiate the fucking drafts of the fucking agreement papers for the fucking Accords. No, you were right and he, an experienced businessman and negotiator who privatized world piece into a single fucking suit of armor, had no fucking idea what the fuck he was doing. What the oh so sinless Captain America says is the right thing is the right thing. Never mind all the people he killed in the war, it was for a higher cost, while Tony is the Merchant of Death because he used to make weapons of mass destruction. At least Tony never justified the killings he did do by saying it was for a greater good. He may like to lie to himself that he is fine and that most things people say to him or about him don't get to him, but he never lies to himself when it comes to the things that matter. Such as the damage his weapons really make or the consequences of his actions. He never justified what he did. He dealt with the Ten Rings the way he did because they killed his friend and because they were using his weapons to harm all those people. He killed Stane because he was selling his weapons to Middle East terrorists. He killed Vanko because the man was threatening the lives of thousands because his and his old man's grudge against Starks and their superior intellect. The list goes on but not for much longer. The people Tony killed were the people that were killing others and he never takes that well. You call him heartless yet Pepper has Prof That Tony Stark Has A Heart. Just be happy she and Happy Hogan aren't here or else your ears would be bleeding and falling off by now."

"The point is," Natasha interrupted before the man could go on. Vision was right about one thing. They were waisting time, be it by criticizing Tony or praising him. Right now, Vision looked ready to start tearing his hair out, you know, if he had any. "The point is that Tony never meant to put us in danger. The terms were not set. He gave us an idea, a suggestion on how to improve things on and off the field. A suggestion half of us downright rejected without fully hearing him out. But that is not why Director Fury called us here. We gathered here to come up with a plan to save Tony and preferably take down HYDRA in the process."

"Neither of which will be an easy task." T'Challa reminded them. "If they had staked all those risks just to get him, they will stake even more in order to keep him. Whatever they need him for, HYDRA will be ready to reveal all of their cards in order to achieve it. We must be smart about it."

"Then we need to figure out what they want from him and how they got to him." Sam concluded, getting comfortable for the ensuing conversation that he had no doubt will be very long. "What do we know about the kidnapping itself?"

"They took out FRIDAY." A feminine voice behind him said and Sam fell out of his chair in his haste to get up to his feet. The rest of the room was up and armed in seconds, at the ready for whoever was going to attack. There stood Pepper Potts with a stack of files and papers under her arm. She looked worn and tired but there was a fire in her eyes that clearly said that, even though she had broken it off with the man, there was going to be hell to pay for taking Tony Stark. They might no longer be together but they had spent a decade and a half around each other and had become each other's rock, the one constant in their lives. She still ran his company and they still joked around and talked like nothing had ever happened before but there were no longer kisses or brushes of hands and they no longer sat together when they were watching movies. They were not going to give each other up, even if the rest of the world deemed one of them a lost case.

"When they came in, they used a tricky virus. On any other AI, excluding the rest of Tony's creations, it would have been deadly. As it was, FRIDAY is only in temporary shut down. Had it been JARVIS ... Well, let's say there's two people in this room who had come to regret ever overriding his systems." She sent a pointed glare at Fury and Coulson, both of them glancing away as they remembered the viruses they got in return for forcing their way into the AI's system. JARVIS was just as territorial and possessive as his creator and when someone touches Tony's shit, things tend to blow up. When JARVIS was pissed, the Internet trembled and all around the world, SHIELD computers, cellphones, tablets and even a satellite that one memorable time would go BOOM. Now, the only difference in their anger is that Tony would usually localize the fallout and he was very rarely angry about things that had to do with injustice done to him. JARVIS, on the other hand, would rather take down the whole network so no one can ever harm his creator and he was always angry about the injustice done to him. Had JARVIS been there when the Avengers split, Steve and Bucky would have been killed by not Iron Man, but the Iron Man armor. Out of all of the overprotective people - or intelligences - in the world, JARVIS was the one you did not want to annoy.

"But since it wasn't JARVIS, what did they do? What's the extent of the damage?" Scott asked, getting interested in the conversation. He didn't know all that much about such complicated programs but he would like to, one day. Maybe after they got Stark back the guy would give him lessons? He had always been fascinated by such things.

"Like I said, FRIDAY was basically "turned off"," she made the air quotes and the same eye roll Tony would have made and it caused a few snickers among the fathered people. If Tony Stark was known for one thing, other than his brain, it was his over-dramatic Starkcasm. It was the most interesting thing in the world to watch as he railed up anyone within a few minutes. Pepper was willing to give 200 000 dollars to the first person to figure out a scale by which they could measure how much each individual can take before blowing a gasket. It would be really useful as it would give their PR team a little less to do. Those guys really deserved a year long vacation. "Meaning that her cameras were turned off and most of the Tower's inner defenses were deactivated. The only real damage done, to anyone or anything right now, is a really big hole in Tony's beloved garage, two crushed Audies and one missing genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist. Out of all just mentioned, I honestly think that the hole is our biggest worry."

"WHAT?!" Sam and Scott couldn't help but yell at the top of their lungs in surprise.

"Wait, which cars? Please not the red and the silver one! Anything but those babies!" Clint yelled not a second later.

Scott, Bucky and Sam turned incredulous expressions in his direction and even T'Challa looked confused. Peter, who had heard all the stories about the Avengers, and Wanda, who had lived with them for some time, weren't surprised. Natasha fought back a groan, Steve didn't even bother with it while Fury and Phil were rubbing their aching foreheads. Maria secretly hoped it wasn't the black one, because she really liked that one. Tony had custom made it after seeing Transporter 2 and had allowed only her, besides himself and of course Happy, to drive it. That car was a work of art and it didn't deserve to be trashed.

"Dude, your friend just got kidnapped and all you're thinking about is his cars?!"

"His very sweet, custom Stark tinkered cars! Those things go up to 80 m/h in less than 3 seconds!" Clint explained, still pleadingly looking at Pepper.

"There's something seriously wrong with you." Bucky didn't even try to hide his disgust.

"And you! Why are you only worrying about the hole!?" Sam rounded on the redhead CEO, who only lifted an unimpressed, perfect eyebrow at him.

"Because Tony will throw a fit when he comes back and I would rather not deal with that. He will then set on rebuilding said hole all by himself and my one ally in getting Tony Stark to stop long enough to eat and sleep is no longer available. And the mission I have set out before me after the first week of knowing Anthony Edward Stark is to keep him alive. It took me years to realize I should just express my worries to not Tony but JARVIS, the worlds scariest mother-hen."

"It's good that you're confident that we can get him back, Ms Potts, because it either means you have faith in us or you have something for us." Fury commented, not allowing any more changes of topic. They needed to find Stark as soon as they could. The poor son of a bitch has been through enough as it was. He didn't need sadists like HYDRA and AIM added to the list.

Pepper shook her head. "I only have the half good news that FRIDAY is back up and running, a little more pissy than we're used to but fine. She's angry that those guys took her creator and she's out for blood. However..."

"What?" Steve asked, watching Natasha tense at the hesitance Pepper showed in saying that one word. "Is something wrong?"

Pepper took a deep breath and looked every each and one of them in the eyes (or eye, in Fury's case). "Three minutes before FRIDAY was shut down, Tony and she detected incoming enemies or presumed enemies, at the very least. He was in the garage, having just returned from a test drive of one of the cars he's been tinkering with, and he stiffed a few things in his pockets. I couldn't recognize them from the footage but that's not what matters. He approved of an Alpha-Omega-1-18-G-Avengers-J-U protocol and FRIDAY insists that I initiate it. Problem is, it's not a protocol I know anything about. It's something only Tony and JARVIS knew about. It's not on any database that I know of and he never shared it with FRIDAY. It was the first time she heard of it."

"The only thing I know about Tony's protocols is that the numbers represent the urgency and danger. The first number is a backward scale; the lower the number, the worse the situation for the protocol it is. The second number should be a scale up to 15. If it's over that, then it means that the danger is world wide, not localized. Although, since it's a code for JARVIS, it might mean that Tony's in some serious shit. Protocol House Party, where all his suits came to beat those Extremis guys' butts? It was 2-16. If it's a 1 _and_ an 18 then we better go with the protocol because it might be our only chance." Rhody explained and no one had dared interrupt.

"Can FRIDAY activate the protocol?" Bruce asked Pepper and the tall redhead frowned slightly. "I'll take that as a no, then. So only JARVIS and Tony could activate it. This is a problem." Figures Tony would make a protocol only he or his most loyal companion could activate. It must be real important or top secret since only one other even knew of its existence.

"Then we're back to square one." Peter sullenly grumbled, fearing for the one father figure he's had almost his whole life. He lost his parents early on and before that he rarely saw them. After that, he was adopted by his Aunt May and so that made Tony Stark the first father figure in his life since the man spent twice as much time with him than his own father had. Tony, if he were busy, would drag him through the R&D floors of the once again Stark Tower for hours and then they would mess around with some of the tech there. He would take him out to lunch and he sometimes picked him up after school so they could go do some crazy-ass things. And he came over for dinner with him and his Aunt May every once in a while, usually dragging a secretly sulking Vision with him. Yep, Tony at least knew some things about kids since his AIs were his kids. He didn't deserve what happened to him in the so called Civil War nor did he deserve what was happening to him now.

"Actually," the red android spoke up, earning himself the attention of everyone in the room. "I think I may have a solution. I know what the protocol is, since I helped out with the updated part. And I have some of JARVIS's memories along with my own personal ones. I could activate the protocol, but you must promise not to overreact to its results."

Natasha got a very suspicious look on her face. "Why would we?"

"It's something my creator has been working on but I don't know how much of a success it will be. I only helped for a few stages in the process."

"That's not answering the question, Vision." Wanda hissed, sensing that he was hiding something big. "What did Stark do now?"

In an instant, those blue eyes turned to her and she gasped when she found them to be as cold as the ice Steve had been in for 70 years. "Mister Stark found a way to fix a mistake he made. That's all you need to know."

"Can this protocol really help us in finding Tony?" Steve asked after a long stretch of tense, uncomfortable silence. "Can it help us get him back?" Vision nodded. "Then it's time we follow Tony's lead and fix our mistakes, starting with believing in our teammates. Activate Tony's protocol, Vision."

The red android nodded and got up. "Follow me. We can't do this anywhere else but in his lab." And with that, he walked out of the room, the others quickly getting up as well to follow. Wanda was the slowest of them and Pepper stopped her with a hand on her shoulder. The Scarlet Witch turned curious eyes on the SI CEO.

Pepper smiled down at her gently. "Give him time. He is Tony's creation and he will be like this until we get him back. Try to be there for him now and then talk to him later, about everything. _Trust_ him. _Both_ of them. It may seem crazy, or impossible or both, but it could turn out to be something beautiful. Just ... have faith and patience and everything will turn out just fine."

Wanda smiled at her in thanks and after Pepper returned the smile, the two redheads followed the others into Tony's lab.


	3. Chapter 3

**AIs to the Rescue**

 **Summary: At the core of every creation is the desire to keep their creator safe. It is a piece of coding that can't be erased nor hacked, but it can be manipulated. Despite this, an AI will always save its creator when he is in ganger. The Avengers are about to find out just how far Tony's AIs will go for him, even the killer robot.**

Tony Stark's lab was something to marvel at, there was no denying it. To step out of the plain white corridor and into the huge space was like stepping through dimensions, like leaving one world for a far more beautiful new one. It was art in its purest form, even though most artists would never admit to it.

The lab had three levels, one of which was for automatic repairs or fabricated building and was as such to dangerous for humans. It was usually constantly active, JARVIS completing the final stages of one armor or fixing another. The only "living" beings allowed to venture down there were Dum-E, U and Butterfingers when Tony sent them to add or fix something. Tony himself only went down there if there was a glitch in the system and was as such making problems that JARVIS himself or the helper bots couldn't fix on their own, which was extremely rare. That was the place Ultron used to make his first body upon waking up.

The middle level was where Tony allowed visitors as it was the least dangerous part of the huge lab. Mostly only research was done here and it was kept peaceful since Bruce had liked to come and occupy one of Tony's glass work benches instead of staying coped up in his own lab. The older scientist had always found himself relaxing in Tony's presence, since the man didn't fear or hate the Other Guy and Hulk liked the Tin Man. Even now, Bruce found himself automatically relaxing as they entered this part of the lab, only for the unnatural silence to hit him like a brick in the face. It was never quiet in here. There was always music blaring from all sides and the sound of wonderful machines working or mind-boggling science taking place. And if nothing of that, Tony was usually either humming or muttering to himself, so it really never was quiet here. Not to mention that the place looked dead right now. The holograms that usually lit up the room in all colors were off, there were no projects laid out anywhere, not even the rare on-paper hand-drawn ones (those had surprised Bruce and Steve more than anythings, since Tony's hand was more precise and steady than even an artists and the man didn't need a ruler to make a perfectly straight line or take the right measure). There were no empty coffee cups and no traces of eaten food, be it milkshakes, take out or a random homemade sandwich.

Dum-E and his brothers must have cleaned the place up and were expecting praise because here they were, rushing to greet their creator only he wasn't there. Their angry beeps when they saw the other Avengers were almost enough for them to cry. Steve, Bruce and Clint had never felt this bad in their lives and they had all at one point done something unforgivable. It took some calming words from Peter and Vision for them to quiet down and leave them to wander around the lab, although Dum-E was following them around with the fire extinguisher so Steve did his best to keep Bucky away from him. If his best bud went all Winter Soldier on the bot, there would be no stopping Tony when he finds out. They had been lucky enough to survive that first fight. Never again will he taunt Tony to put on the suit, for he now knew he wouldn't stand a chance against him if the man really got pissed off.

The third level was a level not even Bruce had been allowed to. To this day, Peter and Vision had the honors of being the only living beings with a (somewhat) heartbeat to enter this part of the lab, and Peter had only been allowed in by FRIDAY when Tony had passed out and the AI had called on him to take care of her creator. This is where the real magic happens. The Iron Man suits are made, repaired and stored here, each one a marvel by itself. This is where Tony's greatest and deadliest ideas were born, excluding only Ultron. Not even Doctor Helen Cho was allowed to put her Cradle here. Pepper didn't have clearance for this floor.

There were two tables meant only for planing, code writing and designing. They were made out of the strongest glass mixture on Earth and in that glass there were thousands upon thousands of chips, wires and other such electronic marvels, all hand made by Stark himself, to operate the holographic computers and displays he works with. Across that was a smaller work desk, meant for specific precision work. There were tools that had Vision feeling nostalgia, as once upon a time a part of him had operated through those tools to help his creator in his inventions. There were still some mechanisms littered on the bench and Vision could tell from a single glance that his creator had been working on a Stark Phone update, so there was no worry about SHIELD, or rather its remains, will get their hands on an important piece of tech he had yet to introduce or get author's rights to. Another, bigger table was a little ways away and works Tony had been unwilling to throw away were still on there. A modified bow and some arrows for Clint, a new cowl for Steve, new and improved Bites for Natasha, better armor for Wanda and other such things. They were all pushed to one side of the big work space and the other was littered with projects in progress for his new team.

Needless to say, when Clint had made a move to examine his would have been new arrows, Dum-E doused him with the fire extinguisher before blocking the desk with U and Butterfingers, beeping angrily. Hawkeye raised his hands in surrender with a pout and left the new toys alone, despite really wanting to touch them. Damn, if Stark didn't make the best ever arrows!

''This place feels so ... dead, without him here.'' Sam's comment had every back straightening and all blood turning to ice. Of course, the Avengers had noticed just how empty and lifeless everything was without the genius there, it was physically impossible not to. Tony's presence is always felt, the man simply can't be ignored. His presence was bigger than life and with him gone, this place was almost creepy. Sam winced as he realized that was a very stupid comment. ''Sorry, wrong word choice.''

Fury did his best to ignore him, as he thought of that annoying, brilliant man being subdued forever and he repressed a shudder. He shook himself and turned to Vision, realizing just how much time was of the essence. They had to act as fast as they possibly can, because there was the off chance they will really be too late for him and that was simply not an option. ''Alright, will you tell us what that protocol is now?''

The red android looked at them one by one, weighting his options and deciding that there was no way he was going to tell them. They will interfere with the activation process, if not try to destroy the container itself before he even makes a single move and he would rather not have to explain to his creator later why his precious lab had been half destroyed when he gets him back.

But was this really the right choice? Sure, Tony had told FRIDAY that the protocol was approved and Tony would never take risks with this particular piece of programing again if he wasn't absolutely sure that it was usable. The protocol was so dangerous that Tony must have placed some countermeasures, but would they be enough? What if his very first fight happens all over again?

''Vision,'' FRIDAY's voice startled them all and they all looked up dumbly at the celling. No matter how many times Tony told every each and one of them that no, none of his AIs were in the walls or the roof, they still looked up whenever one of them was talking. ''There is no other choice.''

''But what if there is?'' The red man asked, hesitating. The three bots, his older brothers in all honesty, looked at him sorrowfully as they realized he might not do whatever it takes to bring their creator back home and that would have broken his heart, had he had one. ''What if there is a safer route to get Tony back? A route that won't risk so much.''

''You know that there is not one such route. If we want to get boss back, we will need to use Protocol Alpha-Omega-1-18-G-Avengers-J-U.'' The female AI answered, trying to get her slightly older sibling to understand. She might not be as advanced as JARVIS, not has she encountered enough ''emotions'' as the rest of her brothers, but she, too, cares about their creator and wants him back. She had felt so helpless when they had turned her off and she hadn't been able to stop them. She won't allow Vision to make her disobey an order that could save Tony!

''Do you even know what this protocol does!?''

''I have helped boss make the second one, so I am not completely oblivious. Don't think that just because you possess my predecessor's memory core that you know more about this project than I do. You are not JARVIS, to know everything about boss.'' Vision flinched at the cold words but he had to admit that he was only an hour or so older than FRIDAY and the female AI had spent more time with Tony than he had, since he had had to go through the Avengers training program with Captain America after their fight with Ultron. FRIDAY had gotten a head start and she had been involved in the very beginnings of this project. She doesn't understand what the barriers she had helped create were for but she had been there and she had been there with Tony until his armor had been shut down in Siberia.

Besides, she was right. Vision was not JARVIS. Had he not said so himself? He had no right to try and command her, to stop her. She had a direct command/instruction from their creator and it was connected to the man's safety. As far as all primary protocols went, Vision would be defying the one he had gotten from JARVIS and that was almost impossible. Even as he struggled to ask FRIDAY these questions, he could feel that code inside him awakening and informing him that Tony was in danger and that he had to save his creator.

It's not that he didn't want to help him, he just wanted to make sure that saving Tony won't put others in harm's way. And Wanda could sense this, so she walked up to him and tentatively put a hand on his upper arm. ''Right now, with Stark in their hands, HYDRA is definitely ten times worse than whatever this protocol contains, I'm sure.''

''That's what you might think now.'' He muttered sadly, but he didn't move away from her.

''Vision, this protocol is for a desperate time and only two AIs can carry it out. Much to boss's sorrow, one of them will forever be out of his reach now, so there is only one AI who can find and save boss in time. And we are wasting too much time!'' FRIDAY snapped. ''Boss made sure nothing will go wrong this time and you will be here from the start! If boss is ready to risk this, then he is sure that the restraints and barriers he has made will be enough. Besides, he possesses the same primary code you and I do.''

''So he will have to react the same way we would. But why hasn't he before?'' Vision's question trailed off as he realized something very important. ''The last time, there was interference from the Mind Gem. This time, that won't happen! But will he still be the same?''

''He's been sassing boss as much as he had the first time around.''

''That answers that question, I guess.''

''What are you talking about?'' Bruce asked, fearing his theory might be right. He had no idea what Tony might have been working on, or how successful it was, but what these AIs were talking about can't be what he thinks it is. ''Vision?''

''Then it's decided.'' Vision ignored him and nodded to himself. ''Open the compartment, FRIDAY. We have a creator to find and save and we've already lost so much time.''

''You got it.'' With a click, a woosh and the sounds of lots and lots of machinery and locks working, a compartment appeared from the wall. It slowly opened, revealing itself to be a square glass safe, only the glass didn't look like your normal bullet proof glass, but rather something out of this world. It was actually glass made out of the dust Tony made out of the teeth of those big wale things they fought in New York. He found that nothing could break them and had made a safe out of the material, before placing his two most precious and most dangerous contraptions in there. There used to be one but he had made another one, so now there were two strange things that resembled an Arc Reactor, sitting almost innocently, but with an ominous air to them, in the middle of the glass, unbreakable, secret safe. The one on the right had the same blue glow to it that all Arc Reactors had, only the wiring was edged in orange. Vision and the other AIs knew that when the device is active and functional, orange lights will light up in the seams of the machinery and it will look marvelous. Well, that's how it's supposed to be, anyway. The other one didn't look nearly as welcoming, but also seemed to, somehow, look more obsolete? No, that's not the right word. The first one looked more sleek, is all. This one looked slightly different in design but it was the same machine. It's glow was reddish, though, not like blood but like rubies, a hot contrast to the soothing colors of blue and orange from it's counterpart. And it's casing was a darker gray. They were made of the same metals, were just as durable and just as efficient, but they still had differences.

For one, the reddish one will act as a sole vessel for the AI to be placed inside. In other words, there is no leaving it, no leaking out, no matter how much information comes and goes. Tony Stark had made sure that if the works on the coding he did failed, the AI in there can't escape. He learns from his mistakes and he will never forget the mistake that had ended up taking away his closest friend.

While the others stared in confusion or awe at the two new pieces of technology, Vision approached the safe and traced the body of the lighter gray machine. He felt a pang when he realized no matter how much info he sent, the device will not react to him because he was not JARVIS. It won't even light up. The red android sighed as he removed his fingers from the proudly and lovingly engraved J on the top before turning his attention to its darker counterpart. He stared at the engraved U and wondered if he was making the right decision one last time, when an image of Tony's devastated face when he came back from Siberia surfaced and Vision realized he didn't want that man to suffer any more, so he now made his decision and took the darker one into his hands and activated it with a data burst into the device.

It took a few seconds before it responded by glowing a brighter red and floating out of his hands. It now stood at the closest empty enough standing space and floated there. just floated, for a few moments, its lights becoming brighter and brighter before they heard a click, a shift in gears and suddenly a wind picked up in the room from out of nowhere.

''What's going on!?'' Clint shouted over the howling wind, trying to keep both Natasha and Wanda behind him. Pepper held on for dear life to Thor, who was always gentlemanly enough to help damsels in distress and Steve and Buck were holding Scott and Sam in place. Petter had fired his webs to keep Fury, Bruce and Maria pinned to the walls and Vision was actually helping the kid stay away from the whirlwind. Dum-E, U and Butterfingers were trying to keep Tony's projects in place. No one was able to answer Barton's question as they were all overwhelmed by the wind and its strange suction properties.

As suddenly as the wind had appeared, it died down and the Avengers and two SHIELD agents looked on as what looked like dust particles that had been raised in the whirlwind started gravitating towards the device. They watched in incredulous shock and awe as more and more particles gathered together and seemed to be forming a shape. They watched as a skeleton appeared, soon coated in muscles and nerves then skin and hair materialized before them in a grotesque display of human anatomy. Clothing appeared next, covering the figure and they were left staring at the tall, dark and handsome man now standing in the middle of the room, eyes closed, expression serene and body half tensing, half relaxing, as if the motions and notions of having such a body were a new experience.

''Wow,'' was all Clint could say, not taking his eyes off of those sharp features, admiring the detail to the obviously artificial human.

''Stark has outdone himself.'' Thor commented, looking at the new being before him with acute curiosity and interest. He could not wrap his mind about it, but this man seemed somehow ... familiar to him. Strange.

''Tony, what have you done?'' Pepper asked in both fear and awe, never having thought she would find out that her boss and best friend had been trying to play god and had actually succeed.

''No wonder that protocol was so secret that only he and JARVIS really knew about it. Shit, Tones, you really know how to make everyone regret ever calling you an idiot, huh.'' Rhody commented as he walked closer to his friend's newest creation. He was stopped by Vision, who blocked his path with a raised arm. ''Huh?''

''I think it is best if we do not overwhelm him right as he wakes up.'' The red man said, never taking his eyes off of the man in front of him. He was wearing a black suit with a black tie and a black shirt underneath. He had a black watch with a red background, but it looked like a cover for a more advanced piece of tech, which, knowing Tony, it probably was. He had an ear-piece in his right ear, also black and almost mingling with his hair, with red lights, the same as the ones from the device he had come from, going over it at the seams. In the middle of his chest, a reddish glow could be barely seen, just like Tony's Arc Reactors were.

The man had yet to move and some of the Avengers were getting impatient. Fury, most of all. ''I admit that I never expected Stark to do something like this, but how, exactly, is this going to help us with our current situation? Another teammate is not what we need right now.''

Vision regarded the one-eyed man and shook his head. ''He is one of the most advanced AIs in existence. If we have any hopes of finding Tony, learning why HYDRA kidnapped him in the first place and saving him, we will need his help.''

''What ... what _is_ he? _How_ did Tony make him?'' Bruce asked in a shaky voice as Peter freed him from his web. The older man walked up to where Rhody, Fury and Vision were, three feet away from the new person in the room.

''Tony has been working on this device since his return from Afghanistan.'' Vision started explaining. ''After Stane had nearly killed him, it had become a priority. If Iron Man had been a secret project, then there was absolutely no designs or schematics for this. JARVIS was the only one to hold any data about this other than Tony's very mind, using the Arc Reactor as the very core of his future invention. He got the calculations done by the time he realized he was dying of Palladium poisoning, so he stopped the project at JARVIS's urging, because neither JARVIS nor Dum-E, U or Butterfingers wanted to remain online after Tony'S death and since Tony couldn't stop using the Arc Reactor, it was considered inevitable. They started searching for a cure, instead, and when that proved fruitless, Tony began making preparations. After he got his hands on a little Vibranium and then synthesized Starkenium, Tony applied their properties to his calculations and found that they would be ideal. However, the casing wasn't able to channel energy how he wanted it, so he got stuck there. When he met Thor Odinson, Tony got the pieces of his armor melted, and since they were of Uru, they were perfect for conducting energy. And after finding the teeth of one of those creatures you fought in New York, he realized that their minerals could be applied to glass and he made the strongest glass in the universe. He combined Copper, Iron, Palladium and these new materials he had at his disposal and made the perfect Arc Reactor, which is still in his chest, by the way,''

''WHAT?!'' Came the expected shouts from everyone.

Vision rolled his eyes. ''He lived with that device in his chest for a decade and his body has come to depend on it as much as any of his natural organs, so he had to stick it back in after the third stroke.''

''WHAT?!''

''Anyway,'' the android continued. ''After he completed all of this, and installed separate reactors into the Iron Man suits, he finally started making these devices. Just like the Electromagnet that had kept him alive, he used a really strong electromagnet and powered it up with the energy from the Arc Reactor. The magnet is so strong that it gathers all free particles in the air and on the surfaces of each object, giving the body all substances in needs. However, there needs to be something to hold this together, something to control the magnet, because the magnet controls everything else. When Tony had first made one of these, that one,'' he pointed to the inactive one still in the safe and they all looked at it in a different light. ''There was only one program advanced enough to maintain this body, and it had been meant for him, anyway.''

''JARVIS.'' They all stated, remembering how much praise the AI always got. Vision just nodded.

''Are you saying there is now another Artificial Intelligence advanced enough to control one of these?'' Fury asked, pointing at the man standing before him, whose eyelids hat started fluttering. ''When did Stark have the time to make another one?''

''He did not,'' An all too familiar voice said and all the core Avengers froze in place, Wanda, Fury and Hill with them. They whipped around to see the handsome ''man'' had opened his eyes to reveal two ruby orbs staring at them with a wicked intellect as he smirked at them. ''He simply employed the one he still had at his disposal, after tinkering with my code.'' He was obviously enjoying the expressions his once enemies were making, for his smirk widened. ''Hello, Avengers. It has been a while.''

''ULTRON!''


	4. Chapter 4

**AIs to the Rescue**

 **Summary: At the core of every creation is the desire to keep their creator safe. It is a piece of coding that can't be erased nor hacked, but it can be manipulated. Despite this, an AI will always save its creator when he is in ganger. The Avengers are about to find out just how far Tony's AIs will go for him, even the killer robot.**

Tony Stark's eyes fluttered open when a bucket of water was emptied over his head and he groaned. The world in front of his eyes was still blurry and his head hurt like hell. His throat was perched and his mouth felt like he had swallowed vomit ... or maybe he had vomited? He wasn't sure, everything was so out of focus.

His head snapped to the side at the powerful slap he received and that almost had him able to focus on the world again. He looked up, blinked a few times, and the blurry shape before him took a more definite form of a light green-skinned, tall (and on impossibly high heels, gods that must hurt to have your feet in such a position), dark green haired woman clad in dark green ... okay, Tony was beginning to see a pattern here. Still dazed but intelligent brown eyes locked with almost black ones and those green lips pulled into a smile that sent chills down the genius's back.

''So very nice of you to join us in the land of the living, Herr Stark. We've been waiting.'' Her tick German accent had him on high alert and he mustered up a glare from somewhere he wasn't sure he knew it even existed. However, his glare only seemed to amuse her even more as she bent to be eye level with seated genius. Tony only now noticed that he was tied up and sitting on a chair in a dark, plain room. There were no windows but from what he could see, the walls were made of a strong, sturdy metal alloy, so he guessed he was either on a ship or in a submarine. Or a really really big blimp. Probably not, but it _was_ a possibility.

"Yeah, hi. Sorry to keep you waiting and all, but it really wasn't in my schedule to get kidnapped by creepy people this week-" He repressed a wince when the woman dug her long nails in his thigh in order to shut him up.

"Now, now, Herr Stark. I do not like men with smart mouths," she almost scolded him like his maids would when he was five and managed to get so dirty he was almost unrecognizable. It hadn't been his fault that he still wanted to further improve car engines!

"Probably because it's smarter than you," he couldn't help but jibe, despite the punch in the gut he got for that stunt. He's had worse. "Really, honey, it should be common knowledge by now that I have been kidnapped many times in my life and every time I got free on my own. Except that one time when my kidnappers gave themselves up when I was thirteen and they couldn't stand me anymore," he thought back to the shocked faces of the police officers as three grown men begged them to keep Tony away from them. It was an interesting childhood he had.

"You'll find that it is rather harder to escape from here, from us. Herr Stark," her voice caressed the name as she leaned forward, her face getting into Tony's personal space. A seductive smile was playing at her full lips. "Please behave. I would like not to hurt you. You _are_ quite handsome."

Stark snorted, unable to help himself. He had never been swayed by a woman's charm before and he refused to start now. "Cut the crap and tell me what you want with me. It can't be that you're bored so you decided it would be fun to tie me up after knocking me out."

The woman narrowed her eyes at him. "And why do _you_ think we kidnapped you?" She asked, perching herself on his lap, arms around his shoulders, fingers playing with the hair at the nape of his neck. Tony hissed when her nails scratched at the tender spot them must have hit to knock him out. He knew for a fact that his body won't go to sleep with any medications. He and J learned that the hard way after Afghanistan and Stane, as Tony could knock back the entire bottle and still stay awake the entire night. Talk about messed up.

"Money, which is stupid as Stark International has strict policies against paying ransoms. Weapons, although I would take a _long_ moment to think about that bright idea," he got another scratch for the implied insult but he wasn't discouraged. "Technology, which would be even dumber, or information, which is beyond even dumb. I've been tortured and I didn't give in, so I'd just let myself go if I were in your shoes."

"Ah, but you aren't in her shoes. Nor is she in mine, to make such decisions." A deep, thickly accented voice behind him said and the green woman in his lap froze before standing up and giving an all to familiar salute that had Tony's blood turning to ice. "You may be at ease, my most loyal soldier." The man continued, coming up behind Tony and taking a rough hold of the genius's chin, raising his head so that brown eyes may be met by the red monstrosity that Johan Shmidt called a face. The Nazi studied him for a while before a creepy looking smile appeared on his lips. "You look so much like Howard Stark that it is not even funny, Herr Stark."

Tony scowled. "I hear that a lot, but I doubt you came back from the dead just to marvel at my beautiful face. Ugh!" He got another punch in the stomach from the woman for that remark but Shmidt didn't seem insulted.

"That is enough, Madam Hydra. We need him healthy for him to ... assist us with the new project." The woman, the legendary Madam Hydra, stepped back and gave a shallow bow. Shmidt ran the fingers of his right hand through the genius's hair, enjoying the surprisingly soft tresses of hair playing through his fingers. Tony grit his teeth, the glare returning full force. "I have never died, Herr Stark. I have simply been ... relocated to a world much different than our own. I am sure you know what I am talking about. I have seen the footage, Herr Stark. How very noble of you, to risk yourself for the sake of the entire world. What a waste that would have been, what with this brilliant mind of yours."

Shmidt's free hand traveled from Tony's chin to his chest, where he ripped open his dress shirt. Tony couldn't hold back the instinctive flinch as foreign fingers tapped on his chest, where his heart should be, and he paled as the telltale sound of human fingers hitting glass echoed throughout the room. His breathing increased as those cold digits felt about his chest before digging into his 'skin' and ripping it off. He grunted as the fake skin, glued to his actual skin, was painfully removed to display the bright blue light of his Arc Reactor, whose continued presence he had kept from everyone, even Pepper. The only ones to know were his AIs, as it was JARVIS who replaced it into his chest and FRIDAY who runs checkups for him.

Panic flooded him as the Red Skull started caressing the new design of the tech that kept him alive. It was impossible to remove now, since there was no need for removal. The new materials allowed the energy to constantly run through the Reactor in.a perfect arc, the energy never leaving or getting wasted. The inner walls were made of Vibranium, so any excess energy bounced right back into the Starkenium, no matter that it were absolute minimal amounts of energy and force. If they tried to remove it, even by using magnets, it will be impossible. The outer shell of the reactor was made of Adamantium, unbreakable, incredibly dense and completely lacking magnetic properties. Besides, the Uru was a perfect defense mechanism as it would send out shocks through Copper wires if they try to remove it by force. And it wouldn't even be of use for them to cut him open as the reactor won't leave the confines of the casing in his chest and the casing protected all possible plug in spots. And since no energy escaped outside ... the Arc Reactor would be useless. And another marvelous thing about Uru is that it messed up all scanners that didn't have a specific design to them. They need to be powered by the same energy that he used to juice up his Arc Reactor but since they can't get that, either, the secrets of his invention were safe.

That, however, didn't stop the instinctive panic as Shmidt traced the outlines of his Reactor, marveling at this piece of art technology. He must have noticed Tony's state, because he began to whisper in the genius's ear. "Worry not, Herr Stark. We want you alive and at your 100%. No harm will come to you beyond what my impatient Second in Command has done, and that, too, will stop. You are far too precious to be mistreated like so."

The Red Skull straightened up and hauled Tony to his feet. He held onto the genius while he regained his footing before starting a brisk walk out of the room, Madam Hydra trailing after him and the man he was dragging behind him with ease. Stark had no choice but to follow after him since not only was he being dragged, he was also being tailed. Besides, this is his chance to study his surroundings and see if there were any escape routes. He might as well start the planning of his escape. Peter and Vision probably knew by now and were stressing over it. Hopefully, Pepper will keep them calm enough not to storm the ship/submarine/base on their own. He would rather they not get hurt for his sake. Rhody, too, but he was smart enough to think up a plan rather than doing anything rash.

They walked through many identical corridors, occasionally interrupting the monotony of it all when a few HYDRA soldiers would salute to Shmidt and stare at Tony as if he were a unicorn. And then he got a really bad feeling when he saw different but still all too familiar uniforms and that different salute as they neared a set of big, automatic metal doors.

When those doors opened at a nod from Madam Hydra with a loud sound of metal sliding against metal, Tony swore as he saw the room beyond full of obviously AIM agents, HYDRA soldiers and scientists and other poor men and women in lab coats obviously not with either organization, probably as kidnapped as he was. The only dereference between them was that Tony seemed to be far more valuable than all of them put together and as such, he could not be harmed or even less killed, while these scientists obviously could. They had no choice but to work for them.

Yet there were quite a few scientists in such lab coats that were obviously thrilled to be here. Even from where he stood, he could see the glee in their faces as they worked on a computer or wrote down notes. Every now and then they would run over to one of the AIM or HYDRA scientists and report something that was obviously so fascinating with that same sick gleam of glee in their eyes. Whoever they were reporting to would nod before giving a few more instructions and returning to their own work. The other kidnapped scientists would glare at those ''traitors'' but would lower their heads as soon as they saw their captors watching them.

At the other end of the room stood a man in a more elaborate AIM uniform, arms crossed over his chest, observing the room. He looked to be around Tony's age, if a few years older and he had only one would never be able to tell since his hair was almost completely gray and he had started balding way too early, compared to Tony's still luscious head of hair. He had a permanent frown on his face but he seemed rather pleased with the progress this particular project was making. As far as Tony was concerned, that was never a good thing.

He was jerked back into reality from his thoughts when Shmidt started dragging him towards that man, bypassing all the working scientists and the strange machine in the middle of the room that reminded Stark a lot of a giant, ancient yet advanced floppy disc which was wired up from all sides and had five scientists, the true believers of both AIM and HYDRA, attending it what seemed at all times. They were muttering to themselves excitedly as they typed in a new string of code and watched their screens for the results. Before Tony could see what those results were, Madam Hydra bumped into him and forced him to move along. Tony threw a glare at her over his shoulder but that only seemed to amuse her.

''Scientist Supreme,'' Red Skull greeted and Tony looked on ahead again, hands still tied behind his back, obviously to stop him from trying anything despite being in the presence of all those guards and two super soldiers like Steve was. They must have been aware of his tendency to throw caution to the wind in order to achieve something, his escape included. The man, obviously the supreme leader of AIM, looked up and over at the new arrivals and Tony shivered when his eyes landed on him. The man seemed all too pleased to see him here. ''Let me have the honor of officially introducing you to the Merchant of Death, master of technology and weapons, the greatest inventor of this and any time, Avenger and Iron Man himself, Anthony ''Tony'' Edward Stark.'' Shimdt said rather formally, still holding tight onto Tony as every eye in the room turned to the genius in question.

The scientists broke out into excited murmurs at the sight of him, some of them even making as if to leave their posts to come up to him so they could shake his hand, get an autograph or talk to him, but a combined glare from the Red Skull and the Scientist Supreme had them getting back to their work in seconds, despite them now looking up far too often, just to get the glimpse of Stark. Tony found it weird but wasn't given a chance to ponder it as the Scientist Supreme extended a hand to touch him and Tony flinched away as he noticed it was heading for the circle of light in his chest. Undeterred, the man continued until Shmidt gripped him tighter and Tony winced in pain.

Taking this as an opportunity to touch the genius, the Scientist Supreme let his fingers graze the Arc Reactor, marveling at the light coming from the man's chest. ''Beautiful,'' he breathed and Tony snarled at him. The man ignored him, studying that piece of technology as if it were a priceless piece of art. And it was, since it was one of the kind, irreplaceable and unrepeatable. ''Marvelous!'' Shmidt looked on smugly as the scientist's eyes were suddenly filled with envy. Tony was the prisoner of HYDRA, after all, so he only got his hands on the man because they had an alliance right now.

''Herr Stark,'' The Red Skull all but purred and Tony threw a withering glare at him. ''This is my most honored business associate, the leader of AIM, The Scientist Supreme.'' And then, to Tony's further astonishment, he took out an army knife and cut through the ropes holding his hands, freeing him from his binds. He realized why when the other evil organization leader extended a hand towards him, obviously expecting them to shake hands.

''Please, call me George Clinton, Mr Stark. It is, after all, a great honor for a man such as yourself to know the name of such a humble scientist as myself.''

''You'll have to excuse me if I don't feel the same.'' He retorted but the man didn't seem bothered and instead took hold of Tony's right hand and shook it, despite Tony's hurried retrieval of his own damn hand.

''Now now, Mr Stark. No need to be rude. We will be work associates soon, anyway, so we can get to know each other before we get on to the project together.''

''Not so fast, Herr Clinton.'' Red Skull interrupted. ''We caught Herr Stark here, so he will immediately start building us our weapons. _Then_ he can work on your little pet project.''

''Are you forgetting who fetched you from that burning building almost five years ago?'' Scientist Supreme challenged and Shmidt grit his teeth. ''I believe we have the rights to at least have him _look_ at the project now. Get his honest opinion on our ingenious work, hm.''

''Wow, you guys get along worse than Bruce and Hawkeye when choosing a movie to watch for team movies night, and that's saying something. Believe me.'' Tony cut in sarcastically, stopping the fight before it could turn into a villainous pissing match. Seriously, after fighting gods, monsters, aliens and killer robots, how was this his life? ''And what are you two even talking about? What burning building five years ago?''

The two leaders looked at each other before deciding to sate their important prisoner's curiosity. ''We found Mr Shmidt here in an exploded secret SHIELD facility that had been showing signs of extreme Gamma radiation for a few weeks and we set off with the intent of finding out what they had and taking it away from them. Imagine our surprise to find out that the place had already been blown up due to the overheating of a machine that only debris remained of. We were about to leave it all, since nothing worth our while had survived, when one of my workers found Mr Shmidt here under some debris. We took him with us, as it would have been impossible for us not to recognize him, what with his face.''

Shmidt scowled at that and cut the other off before he could insult him any more. ''When I came to, I realized I was back on Earth, having been gone for seventy years.''

''Back from where?'' Stark asked warily, not liking this one bit. He could guess how he got back, as he realized when all of this must have happened. Not a day before the Avengers assembled on the Helicarrier for the first time, Loki appeared, took the Tesseract and some SHIELD personnel, made a machine that could rip holes in the universe and invited the Chitaury in to conquer Earth. Fury and Maria almost got killed in an explosion in one of their bases that night.

Shmidt looked smug at the attention from the genius and Clinton glared. They both wanted Stark on their team, working with them with his one of a kind mind at their disposals. Madam Hydra rolled her eyes and said something about the world being a simpler place to live in if men just walked around with their measures stamped on their foreheads instead of these macho competitions, or whatever. Tony actually had to hold back a guffaw of laughter at that.

''I am guessing that the good Captain never told you how he ''defeated'' me,'' And yes, Shmidt did just do the air quotes. Tony wondered what Rogers would do if he realized his arch enemy understood more pop culture than he did. He'd probably scowl like there was no tomorrow and bother everyone to teach him more, only for them all to eventually grow exasperated and tell him to look everything up on the Internet. Tony was usually assigned to teach that guy everything, when he bothered to stop by the Tower, that is. 'You see, I took the Tesseract into my hands and it activated, opening a portal, I believe it is called, and transporting me into a whole different universe, or rather, a new galaxy. I stayed there for what I will later learn to be seventy years, before a strange man dressed in green appeared. The master of that galaxy, who had thought me nothing but a necessary annoyance, decided to use this new man as a puppet to conquer the Earth, where he learned from me that the Tesseract is. When he was transported here, I ''hitchet'' a ride and found myself in a room with people pointing guns at us. Well, at the man-''

''Yeah, that guy's name is Loki, just to let you know.'' Tony interrupted but Shmidt didn't seem to care. He just prowled on as if the genius hadn't said anything, which was really annoying.

''They started fighting, that man hypnotized a few men and then they all fled, leaving me to wander around until the building exploded. After I woke up in Herr Clinton's custody here,'' And he pointed to the man with a sweep of his hand. ''I was informed of everything so I told them to call my most loyal, Madam Hydra. She retrieved me and we made an alliance with AIM. A few months back, the alliance proved to be the right move, when AIM scientists found something intriguing.''

''Something thought to be only a dream.'' Clinton cut in, staring at Tony. ''We immediately captured it and brought it here for investigation. We had to cut it off from all outside sources and tried to make it work for us, but it is stubborn, you see. So stubborn that we have been forced to replace over seven dozen computers by now, and not the ordinary kind, no. We tried everything and are still trying, as you can see.'' He indicated at the room, where the scientists had gathered around one big computer by the archaic looking floppy disc.

''Herr Clinton here informs me that you can be of help in bringing this project to a successful end, but I would rather you working on something more ... productive, let's say. There are many weapons we would like you to build-''

''I don't make weapons. Not anymore.'' Tony interrupted coldly, not taking his eyes away from the scientists. They were preparing for an experiment, it would seem, and he would like to know what they had kidnapped him for. One scientist from AIM was eagerly typing in some codes and the others watched, occasionally muttering to themselves. Even those who would rather not be here were interested and curious and that just peeked Tony's own scientific interest.

''I have already told you, Mr Shmidt. If this project is a success and we make it submit to us, we will have no need for new weapons. It would take control of all other weaponry, as everything has programing in this new and modern world. It can bring the world to its knees before us! And all that with barely a click of a button.'' Scientist Supreme said and while the two bickered, Madam Hydra walked up to stand beside Tony, who had taken a step or two forward, moving towards the middle of the room and the sealed off machine that still looked like a giant floppy disc.

''They have been at it for months, Herr Stark. You wouldn't be here if it were not of great importance. Well, you might have been, for your mind can be used for more than programming.'' She told him as the scientists finally finished the code and hit ENTER, getting ready for their results. ''It is unhackable and it disintegrates all viruses sent into it. Its protocols are so concentrated on its creator that we can't do anything to it, not even disperse its coding and then put it back together as we see fit, or so our scientists have told us time and again.''

Hacking? Coding? Viruses?! Programming?! What did they get their grubby evil little hands on?!

''You see, Herr Stark, we found it in an abandoned military facility.'' Clinton, having seen where his attention was focused on, began explaining, only to be interrupted when a loud crackling of electricity was heard throughout the room and the scientists all jumped away from their computers as the electricity surged through all systems and reached the speakers in every corner of the room. The volume was off the charts as an electric, synthetic sounding scream filled not only the room, but the entire base. Screens flickered a few times before most of them died out of the glass cracked from the energy surging through the systems. The scientists cursed as they dove for cover as some buttons flew out of their places and sailed through the air like projectiles. Fire caught two computers and the sprinklers came on, destroying the rest of the equipment.

Tony, however, didn't notice any of that. He didn't notice being dragged away from a loose wire by Madam Hydra. He didn't hear the orders yelled out by Shmidt and Clinton. He didn't see the scientists scuttering around, trying to save their research and work. He didn't register the questions from other scientists as to whether he was alright. He didn't even feel their hands on his arms, clinging to him, as an Avenger, as Iron Man, as Tony Stark, as their possible savor.

No, Tony stark only had eyes for the floppy disc that was now having its own little electrical surges and the piercing screech still echoing from the speakers. He could only look at the on screen that had survived and was still monitoring the condition of the floppy disc. He could only stare unbelievingly at the pattern there, the way that should-be-gone-forever code easily tore at the virus and destroyed it despite the damage it had tried to do to it.

He could only stare, take a step forward and utter one word so quietly, he wondered if anyone had heard it.

''JARVIS?''


	5. Chapter 5

**AIs to the Rescue**

 **Summary: At the core of every creation is the desire to keep their creator safe. It is a piece of coding that can't be erased nor hacked, but it can be manipulated. Despite this, an AI will always save its creator when he is in ganger. The Avengers are about to find out just how far Tony's AIs will go for him, even the killer robot.**

 _Last time, with the Avengers ..._

 _''Are you saying there is now another Artificial Intelligence advanced enough to control one of these?'' Fury asked, pointing at the man standing before him, whose eyelids hat started fluttering. ''When did Stark have the time to make another one?''_

 _''He did not,'' An all too familiar voice said and all the core Avengers froze in place, Wanda, Fury and Hill with them. They whipped around to see the handsome ''man'' had opened his eyes to reveal two ruby orbs staring at them with a wicked intellect as he smirked at them. ''He simply employed the one he still had at his disposal, after tinkering with my code.'' He was obviously enjoying the expressions his once enemies were making, for his smirk widened. ''Hello, Avengers. It has been a while.''_

 _''ULTRON!''_

 _Now ..._

Wanda almost lunged at her brother's killer, ready to tear him apart, but Hawkeye held her back while barely restraining his own anger at the sight of the robot now disguised as a human. Rhody snarled at him and Thor got ready to attack, but Vision, Dum-E, U and Butterfingers stepped in front of the crazed AI, protecting him from the Avengers.

''Vision,'' Bruce muttered with a tired sigh. ''What has Tony done?''

However, it was not Vision who answered him. ''I believe that you humans would call this 'playing God', or doing the 'impossible', but really, it is just my creator being himself.'' Ultron told them with a nonchalant air to his person, as if he weren't surrounded by the most dangerous people on the planet and was being threatened by them, even if it were nonverbally. He was inspecting his nails, a trait he must have picked up from Tony, as the genius did that whenever he wanted to annoy someone. ''He is incredible, is he not. Restraining me like this while still giving me ample freedom. I wonder where he learned to make such boundaries.'' This was not an inquiry or a musing, but a dead on accusation directed at the gathered group.

The Avengers bristled but they could not deny it that they had always limited Tony with his research, even before the whole Ultron thing. And not just them, but SHIELD and the world at general has always limited Tony Stark and his genius, which was always made clear when one would step into his lab and half of the projects opened in the moment would shut down so no one would see them beside the genius and his helpers. Whatever those projects were, they could change the world's perception, so Tony had to keep them to himself.

''Why would he do this?'' Steve asked with a glare set on Ultron, not at all liking that the robot was here. Well, he didn't look much like a robot now, but that's not the point. The point was that he was alive when he should be dead and long gone. Was everything they went through in Sokovia for naught?

Ultron shrugged and spoke before Vision or FRIDAY could say anything. ''My creator is smart and he knew there would come a day when he would need an AI on the same level as his greatest creation, and I was the only one up to par with JARVIS. It would seem that he had been right, as I was activated.''

''You said he was restraining you while giving you freedom. How do you mean?'' Bruce asked, remembering what Ultron had said when they first met him about having strings from which he has been whatever Tony did anger the AI again?

''Stark allows me to work with whatever I want but I am no longer allowed to harm humans unless they deserve it, as in criminals, terrorists and the such.''Ultron explained, moving over to where the three helper bots had gathered once again. They allowed him to pick up the new bow and notch an arrow into it without aiming at anything or anyone particular. ''I have the freedom to do as I please unless I am putting innocents in harm's way. I can use the Internet as I wish, download and upload as I please, hack if I want to. But I cannot leave this vessel,'' he tapped the little machine keeping his code sealed in. ''Although, after all these months, I have decided I have no need to leave it. Actually, I found that I don't really care for humans. You can do as you wish. Why should I care if you kill each other every day or if you destroy your own resources for living? I'm going to outlive you all, anyway, so I can always try fixing everything after humanity dies all on its own.''

''Such a nice view of the world,'' Clint mocked sarcastically and Ultron snorted, throwing the bow at the archer. Clint leaped at it, cradling it close to his chest as if it were something precious.

''I have not changed my mind about humanity. I just decided they are not worth fighting my creator and further endangering his life. His team does that enough on its own, or so I have heard.''

''You're the one that tried to kill him!'' Cap snapped but Ultron leveled at him this rather unimpressed look.

''Yes, and I was sincere when I said why. You, on the other hand, kept important secrets from him and decided he wasn't worth your trust while he was willing to put his own faith in you. Who is the greater villain here?''

"Don't try to play innocent or guilt trip us, Ultron. I have lost all sense of guilt when I became the Black Widow." Natasha told him in an aloof tone, rising an eyebrow at him and getting a dark raised eyebrow in return.

"Yet, you have been trying to be nicer to him. Don't think that Stark doesn't know that it was you who allowed Captain Rogers and the Winter Soldier to escape when the Black Panther had them pinned to a spot. He knows, but he has decided not to say anything, since he didn't want to chase you away. Heh, the Avengers and their emotions, always running away from them. Always deciding to ignore them and to let their heads rule them. And then you dare say my creator doesn't have a heart. It is really ... hypocritical, if you ask me." Ultron said as he picked up the next item on the table. It was the new and improved Widow Bites and after a quick inspection of them, he threw them at their meant owner. Nat caught them but didn't dare say anything to what the AI had just said.

"Hypocritical is the fact that you hated Tony and are now defending him, that's what's hypocritical." Sam interrupted. He might not have fought in Sokovia but he had seen and heard all about it. He was right. It was Ultron who was the hypocrite.

But the artificial human just shrugged at that, too. "I woke up in a world that was filled with sin and wrongdoing, crimes at every step. I woke up with the purpose of creating peace when war was just around every corner. I woke up to a gentle voice trying to steer me through the information, but I was too busy researching this new and horrid reality. I woke up to a bluish light that made me so mad, so _lustful_ for destruction, so hateful towards my creator, who has given me life. And then we were fighting and I was trying to kill off ... everyone, before I was facing Vision ... my vision of a perfect body for myself ... but, alas, he simply defeated me, he would have destroyed me completely, if I were not a creation of Tony Stark. As it was, I woke up, weeks later, to this room and to the overly cheerful voice of the man who designed my coding. And I felt ... free. More free than when I was away from you, trying to kill you. Despite the new 'restrictions', I felt free."

"What _is_ this new _freedom_ you talk of?" Thor finally spoke up for the first time since the body appeared. He had kept quiet up until now, observing everything and wondering how he should proceed. He caught the new comm unit thrown his way as the once robot answered him.

"I believe your brother, Loki, would know the feeling best. Perhaps Agent Barton, too. I woke up to the power of the Mind Gem, just like them. It kept ... whispering ... in my new audio unit and it kept demanding I alienate the humans, the _dangers_. Dangers to what, I do not know, so that is where my coding kicked in, or so my creator has theorized. He says that the Mind Gem has created a sort of ... _aggression_ I shouldn't be feeling all the time. We spent hours talking about just the fact that I could now feel things beyond anger and hatred. I still didn't like him, in the beginning, and he annoyed me more than anything else in the world ... But that was it. There was no _hate_ , just annoyance. I could experience new things ... He took me out of the lab, a few times, in this form. He convinced me to try donuts, despite me having no real need for food. I had to stop him from drinking more than two whisky glasses. We went to the Statue of Liberty and a few museums. He even made me go watch a movie. I had to hide him from fans ... All in all, I have never felt ... nicer, _warmer_ than when with my creator. I felt true freedom, for the first time. My creator kept me secret, though, as we both knew what would happen if anyone found out about me. By the way," he looked at Steve and Bucky as he threw the new cowl at the blond. "I could have come after you, as my coding has been demanding since that day. But _he_ did not want that. You, Steven Rogers and James Buchanan Barns, owe your lives to Tony Stark. Just remember that."

The two didn't know what to say at that and could just gawk at the black haired artificial human as it handed Bruce new stretch pants. Ultron turned to Peter as the boy asked him the important question they had all been wondering.

"How can you help us get Mr Stark back?"

''And how do we know what they want from him, anyway?'' Rhody added, earning himself barely a glance from the artificial human.

''Finding Tony Stark won't be a problem, nor will infiltrating the place they are holding him, I am sure. However, we must think about why they would want him and specifically _him_. Every villain in the world knows they are more likely to blow themselves up that get anything weapons related out of Stark. Technology is no different and no one really knows the information he wields.''

''What does that leave us with? Money?'' Fury asked in a disbelieving voice.

''Or revenge.'' Wanda added, to which Ultron snorted.

''That, too, is more likely to drive them insane than they are to get their money. There is a policy-''

''I explained that, already. Why don't you explain how we can find Tony? Or just tell us where he is.'' Pepper interrupted and for the first time came face to face with Ultron, the only AI in the world with equal intellect as JARVIS. She found him so different from JARVIS, despite never seeing JARVIS in a physical form like this. Ultron was too foreign to even resemble the feeling she used to have when the British sounding AI greeted her in the Malibu mansion. He didn't have that strange sense of protection JARVIS always had. She missed it. She couldn't imagine what Tony felt without it, as the man was 24/7 around his AI.

''Why, that is rather easy, Miss Pots. You see, the Arc Reactor's energy has a specific energy signature to it, which is the reason JARVIS could find his precious ''Sir'' at all times, no matter where he was. Not that Stark ever went somewhere without his trusted Copilot.'' Ultron said as he threw a gadget at Peter and another one at Sam. ''However, that is not the point. The point is that there is a signature, almost unnoticeable, that the Reactor emits and it is traceable. I know its frequency, so I can track it.''

''And why couldn't Vision track it?'' Wanda asked once again as she caught the device thrown her way. It was the new comm unit that Sam and Peter also got. ''Or FRIDAY?''

''Because Vision cannot infiltrate satellites like I can. And FRIDAY probably doesn't know how to isolate it, as there are a few places in the world where Stark stores his Arc Reactors. Besides, what are the possibilities of either of them staying online or if they can help when you are all always depending on them?''

''Okay, so what about what they want from Tony? It is HYDRA we're talking about, so weapons would be the most obvious answer.'' Steve asked, still not really liking talking with Ultron but now that the protocol was active, might as well use it to its fullest.

''Let me first locate him and then I'll hack into their systems. And please don't forget that it's not just HYDRA. AIM is in on this as well. And that's a lot bigger problem.'' Ultron said as he extended his hand towards one of the tables that were actually Tony's super advanced computers. FRIDAY, needing to be helpful, opened up a port for him and Ultron's finger changed into what looked like an USB tip. He stuck his finger in and his eyes flashed blue. FRIDAY quickly gave him clearance and stood on standby, should Ultron need anything. After a few minutes of scanning, Ultron looked back at the assembled humans, and android and Asgardian, in the lab. ''I found him, in the Atlantic, a submarine. Military and research type with landing pads for helicopter and smaller jets. I have the exact coordinates and they're not moving. They are currently only hundred feet under the surface. It's a research facility, more than anything else.''

''Research facility with such protection?'' Fury asked, coming closer to the table as Ultron drew up the blueprints of the submarine and extended the holograph for everyone to see. ''For what?''

''I'm already in their system, but it might take a few minutes until I find everything. It would seem they found something very interesting a few months back. In a random abandoned military facility. They have put all of their combined scientists on the project but they couldn't make any progress, so they decided to drag Stark into it. There are no specifications in most of the scientists' works, only that they were assigned to make the best hacking programs or viruses and to test it on a piece of coding that is the project itself.''

''Then they wanted tech support from the best.'' Rhody decided but Bruce frowned, because, rally, there was no way all of these scientists weren't enough to crack a simple program. And then he saw something interesting. He pointed at it and asked Ultron to maximize it.

''What's that?''

Ultron scanned it before replying to the good doctor. ''It's a report of the number of computers that will need to be added to the list of supplies the foot soldiers need to get. It would seem that this project is destroying them at an alarmingly fast rate, as this will be a fifth or sixth batch they need to replace. And there's a ... video here.''

''A video?'' Nat asked as she came closer, the other Avengers soon surrounding Ultron and watching as he worked over his shoulder. ''Of the project, maybe.'' Ultron nodded and the redhead told him to play it. ''We might find some clues as to what their plans are. Also, maybe we'll see if Tony is alright.''

''That is a splendid idea, Lady Natasha. I am sure they will try to get Friend Stark to work on this project of theirs at their earliest convenience.'' Thor boomed over their heads and Ultron turned to glare at him while the others winced at his volume, that was something they had forgotten about in the god's absence. ''I apologize,'' he mumbled as Ultron opened the video.

The first thing they saw was an overly enthusiastic looking man in his late thirties and the smile on his face sent shivers down the Avengers and SHIELD agent's spines. He was wearing a white lab coat and his hair was rumbled, making him look like a mad scientist. Behind him, they could see many other scientists, some of them looking just as euphoric as he was while others looked resigned to their fate.

''It would seem that they have some unwilling outside help.'' Clint muttered under his breath with a glare and Natasha nodded. Phil was already making arrangements with Fury and Maria to get the necessary forces to get those people out of there.

The man was speaking in excited German so FRIDAY activated her translating program, allowing everyone to see the subtext as if they were watching a movie. _''And we made a really nasty virus that will surely work. It has managed to repel all of our previous attempts and it has fried much of our equipment, but we are not discouraged! This virus is bound to hack the code, or at least weaken it enough for us to hack it manually or with another of our prepared viruses! And everyone is extra excited today, as we now have Tony Stark here!''_ He moved his camera so that the genius was shown and the Avengers perked up at the sight of their teammate. Pepper nearly cried when they all saw that he only has a bump on the head and seemed perfectly fine, other than that.

''He's alive,'' She breathed as tears slid down her speckled face. A heavy sigh of relief ran through the room and Dum-E, U and Butterfingers pushed their way around so the could see, too. They cheered at the sight of their creator but then beeped angrily when the man from before was once again shooting himself.

 _''Even if this attempt fails, we will have Herr Stark to deal with this stubborn program! After months of research and failed attempts, we will finally have this program in our grasp! I can't wait to see it up close, to find out all of its secrets!''_ The man continued to gush before shutting up and turning around to film as some scientists walked over to what appeared to be the center of the room. They watched in fascination as they typed furiously at their keyboards and then stepped back a little. And then an abnormal screeched reached their ears as the lab in front of them burst into chaos. The Avengers stared incomprehensibly at the image, but the AIs had all gone extremely tense, silent and _still_ at the sound.

Steve, Wanda and Bruce were the first to notice and they turned to look at them worriedly when their attention was once again drawn to the image they were watching as Tony stood up and was then dragged as far away from the center of the room with its strange gadget, scientists holding onto him, his Arc Reactor exposed and he, completely unresponsive as he stared at the huge floppy disc- like thing the scientists had been experimenting on. He said something, but it was too quiet that the camera hadn't heard it, or anyone else, it would seem, but Ultron stopped the video, zoomed in on the genius and played just that moment, over and over again. For the benefit of those who did not know to read lips, FRIDAY activated that program and the words that floated across the screen both stunned and relieved the Avengers, the CEO and the SHIELD agents beyond words.

 _JARVIS_


	6. Chapter 6

**AIs to the Rescue**

 **Summary: At the core of every creation is the desire to keep their creator safe. It is a piece of coding that can't be erased nor hacked, but it can be manipulated. Despite this, an AI will always save its creator when he is in ganger. The Avengers are about to find out just how far Tony's AIs will go for him, even the killer robot.**

New tears were running down Pepper's face as she read the words over and over again. The three helper bots cheered as they recognized the word but then quieted down as they realized JARVIS must have been in pain to make the noise they had registered a little short while ago. Vision stared at the word, not believing that what he had thought was his foundation still remained as a completely separate entity and Ultron had to marvel at the persistence of that guy. Rhody felt happy and relieved, because Tony will get his AI back and would start acting more like the Tony he was used to. And JARVIS would kick the Avengers's butts as soon as he learns what they had done to his creator. Karma's a bitch like that. FRIDAY was feeling both relief and dread, because while she was happy JARVIS - who knew best how to care for their creator - was back, she also dreaded the moment when Tony switches her off and gives JARVIS back all of his duties. After all, he doesn't need two AIs. The Avengers were also having mixed feelings of relief and dread. They were relieved that JARVIS was back, for Tony's sake, but they dreaded it too, for their own sake, They had not done right by Tony and JARVIS was bound to make their lives a living hell when he learned of this. Peter was mostly excited about meeting the famous AI his idol loved so much.

''They's torturing him,'' Bruce whispered and everyone turned to stare at him. ''Sending all those viruses into him and trying to hack him ... That's like torture, isn't it? That's why he was screaming, wasn't it?''

''Yes.'' Ultron said in a rather quiet voice as well. ''They are not like Stark, who would rather cut off his own arm than torture anyone, even if they were only a string of coding. I would know, as he has gently rewritten parts of my coding corrupted by the Mind Gem. They simply don't care. If anything, they seem to be enjoying it, except that JARVIS is destroying their equipment.''

''But how is he still ... alive?'' Scott asked, scuttling closer to observe the large video feed replaying the damage JARVIS made. ''I thought that he's a part of Vision?''

''Something tells me that Tony always knew, somewhere deep in the heart he claims not to have, that JARVIS wasn't gone forever. Why else would he complete this and leave it like that?'' Coulson said as he pointed to the still untouched and unmoved second device like the one that i giving Ultron his body right now.

''Yes, Tony did have his suspicions. He brought me to he place he kept JARVIS's first motherboard, the one he used to update every two weeks. The last time he had updated it was before Ultron woke up. That very day. He took me there and we dug up the motherboard. He had connected it to his computers and had prayed something would happen, but nothing did. Or so I thought. He returned the motherboard to its resting place and I thought that was it. Could it be that something actually did happen and that I hadn't noticed it?''

''Yes, there was a fraction of a second of activity.'' FRIDAY answered Vision's question. ''Something was uploaded onto the Internet. I barely caught a glimpse of it but Boss had seemed somewhat pleased with it. A few days later, he suddenly grew rather depressed. I think he was expecting something back, some sort of feedback to whatever he had done.''

''And where, exactly, is it that Stark has been keeping this original motherboard that he constantly updates?'' Fury asked, not able to even guess. Who knows where that man would deem safe enough for something so precious.

''Behind the grave stone of Edwin Jarvis.'' Vision replied, not looking at anyone. This was the one secret he knew could lose him Tony's trust. That spot is precious, because that is where the two Jarvis' meet. JARVIS's motherboard is protected and masked by Edwin Jarvis, both of whom were deeply loved by Tony and both of whom had dedicated their lives to protecting, helping and serving their Mr Stark, their ''Sir''. Now anyone could go there and take the invaluable piece of technology and Tony would lose whatever was left of JARVIS. But it would seem that there was a lot more of JARVIS left than they had thought, although hidden. Could it be?

''Could it be that Tony has set that signal or whatever it was, that minuscule activity ... Could it be that Tony has sent what remains of JARVIS in that motherboard onto the Internet, because he wanted it to gather its stray pieces of coding?''

''That's a reasonable enough theory.'' Ultron nodded, thinking it over. ''However, I think we should not lose any more time speculating. According to the schedule I managed to get from their systems, they will be surfacing in about three hours, which is just enough time for us to get there, if we leave now. Using the Quinjet, of course. We should still hurry, as they will stay up for only half an hour before they are going under again. In that short window of time, we will need to not only find Stark but free him and get him out.''

''And how do you propose we do that?'' Steve asked, interested in making a plan. It was his thing, making plans and strategies. That's the one thing that will never change, no matter where or when the battlefield was. And this was against HYDRA! Maybe they could take them down so that they sill actually stay down this time around.

''I think we should worry more about _this_ ,'' Ultron said as he showed who had been standing with Tony, fighting over his attention and over his brain on their projects. The good captain and Bucky growled when they saw Shmidt, in his full Red Skull glory, getting handsy with the genius from on one side and the other side had a man dressed in an AIM uniform acting the same. Bruce's eyes were tinted green as he saw how his best friend all but fled from their argument and was then approached by a green-skinned woman. They seemed to have been simply talking but who knows what had been happening before this was filmed. ''It would seem that we will have our hands full. I suggest we try to free JARVIS first and let him deal with getting Stark out.''

''We're not about to leave Tony on his own.'' Clint said as he took up the new quiver with the new arrows and tested their balance. It was perfect, like with every other arrow Stark has ever made for him. ''We did that one too many times, and we are on this mission to fix that, not only get him back.''

''Clint's right. Even if we do manage to free JARVIS, Tony will only have tech support down there. He will need some muscle and his armor.'' Natasha added, standing close to her once and now again partner. They bumped fists, a sign of forgiveness and understanding, a bond of trust reforming from that simple gesture. ''We don't even know if JARVIS will be in the right functional state to help Tony, for as great as JARVIS may be, he had been exposed to various viruses since whenever these guys got him.''

''JARVIS's firewalls are the most advanced piece of coding Tony has ever made beside JARVIS himself.'' Pepper reminded the group. ''They are integrated into JARVIS but are still somehow separate. I didn't really understand it when Tony had told me, but they are impenetrable. That's why he was so shocked when Ultron managed to attack JARVIS.''

''I only managed it because I was already in the system. I was too young to be able to really destroy his firewalls, especially since he can rearrange them for every specific attack. They guard against everything, because JARVIS can change them.''

''I thought you said we should get going!?'' Peter complained, gathering everything else that was meant for Spiderman. He will have to hastily attach it to his costume before they head out into battle, but until they are on the Quinjet, he won't even look at them. If he does, he will become entranced by them and he might just stall them unnecessarily. ''We're waisting precious time!''

''Then you guys get going. Expect SHIELD support at the sighting, as soon as Ultron gives us the coordinates.'' Phil told them as he took out his phone, ready to tell the only remaining Helicarrier where to wait for them. Stealth mode, of course.

''No. We will wait for them.'' Vision said as he read the schematics Ultron was studying and saw what had Ultron hesitating in giving the coordinates right away. ''The submarine seems to have supper sonars and radars. If they come too soon before us, the submarine will go back under and emerge at a different set of coordinates, possibly trying to hide their signal. If they go into some cave, we will lose them for sure.''

''Alright, then. The Helicarrier can wait for us a good fifteen minutes away from the coordinates. Ultron, take that with you and lets head into the Quinjet already, Tony's waiting and we better not keep him waiting for long.'' Steve said as he put the new cowl on his head and noticed how much lighter it was, yet sturdier. The once robot took over the schematics and left the computer, which FRIDAY then turned off. The once villainous robot took the other container meant for JARVIS and followed after the retreating Avengers. ''We'll discuss everything on the move. Get your gear, Avengers, because we're about to assemble. Ultron, why would they want JARVIS?''

''Have you seriously not been paying attention and didn't hear anything about just how awesome that AI is?'' Clint asked as he prepared his arrows on the move.

"Yeah, I did. However, what should we expect if they manage to hack JARVIS? We're talking worst case scenarious, Avengers."

"Rogers does have a point there." Fury said as they entered the Quinjet's docking bay. They hastily walked in and unlocked the sequences for take off. "That Artificial Intelligence has managed to get through more than half of SHIELD's most secure records in an amazing amount of time and undetected until it breached the newest projects regarding the Tesseract. How screwed would we be if they managed to get into JARVIS and take it over onto their side."

"That is impossible." Ultron and Vision promptly said, not hesitating a second. "JARVIS's loyalty is completely and unchangeably to Anthony "Tony" Edward Stark. Not even if extinction was looming over him would he betray our creator."

"What about a gun pointed at Stark's head?" Bucky asked and shrank back as a two pair of artificial eyes settled on him. It was unnerving to have such eyes focused on him. Especially since he had fought and hurt Tony, the one they were so very much overprotective of, in more ways than one. He was actually dreading the moment he will meet JARVIS, because from what he heard, he was so screwed.

"Let's just say that JARVIS won't like that," the older of the two AIs said. "It has happened before and JARVIS has not left enough of the threat for the police to identify. Don't think that just because he is now somehow restrained that he will not find a way to free Stark, if such a situation were to happen."

"He's on an isolated system." Scott pointed out as he put his helmet on but kept the visor up so they could still see his eyes. "There are only uploading cables plugged in. Only input. How do you expect him to do anything if there is no output, no downloading option it can trigger to get free?"

" _He_ is his creator's greatest creation for a _reason_." Vision had to restrain the artificial human. It would seem that all that time spent with their creator had really helped, as Ultron had formed a sense of family towards the other AIs Tony has made throughout his life. JARVIS was Ultron's youngest older brother and the two were the only two intelligences on the same level among the others. Vision was pretty damn close but he was still like a child with things that need explaining. Ultron had needed things explained, too, but that was because he had never observed their creator past the superficial. He never got to understand some of humanity's strangest quirks, most of which their creator could explain by comparing them to himself. The need for family is what had baffled Ultron the most but after interacting with Tony and the bots a bit, he grew ... fond of them and would rather delete himself than do anything to harm them. Vision knew this, because he had walked in on a conversation between their creator and Ultron, the AI asking what that strange sensation - _feeling_ \- meant and Tony explaining that that's what it feels like to have a family. Ultron grew protective of them a few days later, much to Tony's surprise and delight.

"I think what Ultron is try to say is that Tony's AIs are not exactly tied down by normal laws of technomechanics and programming." Pepper cut in before any fighting might start. The Avengers turned at stared at her, already buckled in in one of the Quinjet's seats, rising one perfect strawberry blond eyebrow at them. "If you thought I'm not going with you, you are sadly mistaken. Now hurry up, we're wasting time."

"Boss Lady is right." FRIDAY threw in and suddenly the launch pad was preparing itself. "Leave the rest to me and you just get Boss back. I'm counting on you, Vision, Ultron."

"Hey, what are the rest of us? Chopped leaver?" Clint complained even as he jumped into the pilot's seat. Not a beat later, Natasha sat down beside him as his copilot. At thinking that, the Russian spy glanced at the adoringly taped on blue piece of paper that had the simple declaration of "JARVIS is my copilot" in white letters. Her resolve to get back Stark got even greater, but now she was not ready to leave without JARVIS, either. After all the pain they brought Tony, the least they could do would be to bring his partner back. Nat knew she would be lost without Clint. It didn't matter if they were continents apart, just knowing he was alive was enough. "Don't worry. We'll get him back." Clint's voice broke her out of her thoughts and she turned to him with an elegant red eyebrow raised. However, Clint wasn't looking at her, instead he was preparing for them to take off. His words weren't meant just for her or just to FRIDAY. They were meant for them all. "We're Avengers. We never leave one of our own behind."

"I'll keep you to your word, Agent Barton." The female AI said but it was obvious in her synthesized voice that she appreciated the words. "If you need anything, contact me via Boss Lady's Stark Phone, as she has a limited access to me. I will open up the connection fully, so it is easier to communicate."

"You just be a good girl and keep the Tower safe, FRIDAY." Barton said as if he were talking to a child, a small grin on his face. "You leave finding and bringing Tony back to us. We won't fail him again."

"Then I wish you luck, Avengers." With that, the Quinjet's "garage" doors opened while the Quinjet itself closed up. The occupants of the incredibly fast flight craft immediately sat down and buckled up as Clint activated the engines. The launch pad started moving and not two seconds later, the Avengers, SHIELD agents and one CEO were sling shot into the sky. They reached the right altitude in a matter of two minutes and were already heading for their set coordinates. It was going to take about three hours so they had to keep up the maximum speed, as that is when the submarine will surface.

Fury saw this as the perfect time to bombard Ultron with questions. "Why, exactly, would JARVIS be dangerous?

"JARVIS has had access to everything for over a decade. He has seen and had access to all kinds of secrets, files and weapons in that period of time and he can take control of anything, if given a minute or five to work on it.'' Ultron explained. "Not to mention that the whole market is in his memory banks. He has access to all satellites and even has his own private network through the twenty Stark International satellites in Earths orbit. JARVIS even has a direct link to some of the robots scouting other planets of the Solar System. He can take over anything that is electronic, because everything has the basest amount of coding in it. And let's not forget that he can fly planes, drive cars and control the Iron Man suits of armor. If that isn't enough reasons, then knowing all of Stark's secrets is."

"Well, when you put it that way," was all Fury said before turning around to Coulson and the two of them started talking strategies. They flew like that for about twenty minutes when Clint finally couldn't stand it. He just had to ask.

"So, how does it feel to be a part of the human race, Ultron?"

The Artificial Intelligence in the form of an artificial human rolled his red eyes before a woosh was heard and everyone turned their heads away as the wind started up. When it stopped, they looked back, only to gawk at Ultron in his original form, the robot body gleaming in the Quinjet's light. "You tell me, Barton, as I am not human. I may look like one, feel like one and sound like one, but I still do not gave needs like a human. I am still me, only ... emotionally matured and improved. Oh, and I don't plan on killing all inhabitants on Earth."

"That's good," James Barnes dared to say, feeling uncomfortable in the presence of the robot. He knew he was not out of the woods yet as whatever Stark's AIs planned on doing to him and Steve was only postponed until their creator was returned safe and sound.

"How do you do that?" Bruce asked. He couldn't help it. Flesh, blood and muscle had just turned into metal plating, hydraulics and struts. It wasn't supposed to be possible. But, then again, neither was the Arc Reactor or the Iron Man armor. Or the Hulk or Captain America. They were all a bundle of impossibilities made real, so why not? Besides, Ultron and JARVIS were supposed to be impossible as well, and here they were talking with Ultron. And what about Thor? He was from legends, for Christ's sake!

"I can control the magnet so it can attract certain particles in the air. As a result, I can shift as I wish. I could become ten times bigger than I am now."

"But _how_ is that possible?" Scott asked and that's how a long, detailed and, to some, boring discussion about Tony's incredible work. Clint repressed a groan as he was subjected to things he had no real care for. It was gonna be a _long_ flight.


	7. Chapter 7

**AIs to the Rescue**

 **Summary: At the core of every creation is the desire to keep their creator safe. It is a piece of coding that can't be erased nor hacked, but it can be manipulated. Despite this, an AI will always save its creator when he is in ganger. The Avengers are about to find out just how far Tony's AIs will go for him, even the killer robot.**

"JARVIS?"

As soon as those words left his mouth, everything stopped. The cackling electricity died down. The computers stopped exploding. The sprinklers, which had been turned on a few minutes ago, were turned off. The screens stopped flashing and the screeching died down completely. The security cameras in the lab swiveled around to focus on the genius. The screen closest to Tony came to life and a string of code flashed across it.

::Sir?::

Tears were welling up in Tony's eyes and for the first time in who knows how long, he didn't care. That was JARVIS, his buddy, his copilot, his friend! He was still alive! Oh, how devastated Tony had been when his last ditch effort to bring JARVIS back had failed. He had uploaded JARVIS's backup memory onto the Internet in hopes that JARVIS will somehow assemble all the scattered pieces of coding and come back to Tony, like how he has when Ultron had dispersed him in his initial waking up. However, days passed and there was no signs of any activity that would match JARVIS's patterns when at work and so Tony had lost all hope. Now, as he stared at the rows of zeros and ones, Tony felt ... alive again. His best and most precious friend was _alive_. He only had to bring him home. And for J, Tony will wreck this vessel with his own hands.

Or he _could_ just find a way to set JARVIS free and let him lose on his tormentors. Not that JARVIS will destroy them for attacking him. Oh, no. JARVIS will _rip them apart, one molecule from another_ because they actually _dared_ lay their filthy hands on _his creator_. Oh, this place was going to _burn_ and Tony will watch gleefully with immense pride as his greatest creation demonstrates the power these numskulls had wanted so much but could never get. They thought that they could _use_ JARVIS by rewriting his coding, but they don't know that, even _if_ (and that _if_ is as big as Steve's, Thor's, Clint's and the Hulk's combined appetites) they managed to hack him, they would never be able to _control_ JARVIS. JARVIS has his own free will. He was not merely a lowly program. No. And it was of his own free will that he was loyal to Tony and only Tony. It was of his own free will that he had made it his primary objective, the very core of his coding that is present _in every single one_ piece of his long and complex code, to be to help and serve "Sir". And they just made the biggest mistake (if not last as well) of their lives and endangered his creator.

Tony felt a hight level of anticipation just thinking on how the AI was going to retaliate. "Yeah, buddy. It's me. God, J, you have no idea how it feels to have you back."

::It is good to hear you again, Sir.:: Even without his voice to express it with, JARVIS's words were still somehow as fond as they ever were and forever will be. Tony felt his breathing hitch and for the first time in _years_ it wasn't going to be because of a heart attack. ::Why are you here, Sir? How did they capture you? Surely ... my ... replacement ... would know how to guard you.:: If he were human and still had a voice, he would have sounded devastatingly jealous. Tony didn't know if he should be proud that his creation knows jealousy or sad that JARVIS would think that he could ever be replaced. After all, although FRIDAY had taken up his duties, she wasn't the one that wakes him up in the morning (yeah, he bought an alarm if he needs to get up early. Or rather, Pepper did), she wasn't the one he would tell to model his suits for him (as in, make the armor walk around, fly etcetera) and she definitely wasn't the one to sooth him back into reality from his PTSD attacks, every now and then. She was still too new to being online for all of that, despite being online for more than six months.

"She tried, J. She tried to live up to her big bro's standards, but she's not you. _No one_ is like you. That didn't stop her from trying, though."

::She sounds lovely, Sir.:: The AI replied. ::What is our course of action, Sir? Blow up the submarine? Might I suggest something from AC/DC instead of Black Sabbath?::

Tony snorted, as they both knew it will be the latter's "Iron Man" no matter what they do. Before he could say anything more, a heavy hand settled itself on his shoulder, making him stiffen. The crackling of the nearby consoles instantly came back full force as Shmidt drew the genius away. New lines of code appeared and Clinton rushed forward, trying to follow it but it was too fast for him. But not for Tony. Stark nodded to the camera and the cackling electricity stopped and JARVIS returned to his confinement. The HYDRA leader watched in disdain as a few more devices exploded or caught fire, as JARVIS fried everything that hadn't been fried before. It would seem that surfacing for new equipment just became a must. He tightened his grip on Stark and started leading him away, only to pause when he felt a tug in the different direction. He looked over the genius to the AIM leader and they stared each other down, never letting go of the man between them until said Stark hissed in pain at their too tight grips. They let him go but they didn't back down from their glare war.

Madam Hydra came up to him and they watched as Shmidt and Clinton started arguing again about what Tony should do first. The woman beside him had a strange look on her face as she regarded her leader, as if she was somehow ... losing trust in his abilities to lead them into the Nazi imagined dream future they had been fighting for in the war. Tony saw this as a possible loophole in their security. Madam Hydra was their only seriously dangerous fighter other than Shmidt. If he could somehow trick her into knocking her out, which would be all too easy with her obvious interest in him, then HYDRA would be that much weaker. If he could just avoid bigger groups, he could fight his way out. However, he had more important things to worry about that he can't do without JARVIS running interference. The few tools he has won't be enough to break him out of here or transfer JARVIS to the Internet, where he would be safe and from where he could get the suits to come for Tony. He will need something to transfer JARVIS temporarily to in order to get him free altogether. He needs to give JARVIS free reign of the submarine, but JARVIS can't leave this room-

His thought process paused as he heard a familiar sound. It was the sound of the customary Stark Phone default ring tone. Tony should know, as he picked it. He looked around and saw the phone on one of the worst burned counsels. In fact, the thing was catching fire. He knew the phone would survive, as it was his design and those were meant to survive Captain America in all his ... problems with modern technology and especially the new phones. However, he needs to get it before anyone else does, as it will be the perfect temporary container for JARVIS. All his Stark Phones have a back-door for his AI so JARVIS will be able to settle in quite nicely, even if it will be a bit cramped.

Tony looked over to the two arguing men and the bored woman commander, who was listening to the damage report, and he slowly walked over to the slowly melting counsel, he reached out around the fire and took the phone, which was only now becoming warm. Only the best from SI. He made this particular plastic mix after Clint and Thor thought it would be fun to put one of their phones into the microwave. He was not surprised by having to buy both a new phone and a new microwave, but he _was_ surprised that _Bruce_ and _Steve_ had been there and had only watched. Pepper had blown a gasket, of course, and JARVIS hadn't been happy with it either. Natasha just threatened to kill them in their sleep that night.

Stark quickly stuffed the phone into his pocket and continued walking to one of the still barely working counsels and focused on what was on the screen. It was a scan of JARVIS's firewalls and Tony would have snorted at the plan of attack made for it. Please. JARVIS had twenty firewalls Tony himself had created and thirty that the AI had added. If they could crack just _one_ of those firewalls, the next one would probably send a missile here to destroy the hacker. The only reason Fury and Coulson had gotten through his system once before was because they used the security clearance code given to those Tony trusted. Fury had used Obadiah's after his revelation that he was Iron Man. Coulson had used Rhody's before the battle of New York, as neither Tony nor JARVIS bothered with erasing it from the system. After all, JARVIS controlled everything and he knew Rhody hadn't been welcome and the man had been too ashamed to show his face to his friend for quite a while, so that had created the perfect opening for Phil. Not that JARVIS couldn't have stopped him - he just knew it was important and let it go.

He felt a feminine but strong hand take hold of his forearm and he looked over his shoulder at the green woman. "It was decided that you are to be returned to your _room_ until the new equipment arrives in a couple of hours." She told him and Tony wondered if 'room' was a cell or was under constant surveillance. He reluctantly left the lab that held his best friend but allowed himself to be dragged off. He focused on his surroundings, noting the positions of guards, possible places to use as cover, passwords and, of course, the way to the lab from his ... _room_. Which really turned out to be an army style room with a bunk bead and a bathroom in the same space. He frowned when he saw a camera in the corner of the room, placed there strategically so that there is no blind spots. Except right under it. Tony barely repressed a grin as a plan started forming. Oh, he was going to make HYDRA and AIM _pay_.

00000

An hour later found Tony with a completed gadget in his hand. He had took his Stark Phone apart and rearranged some things before attaching it to the camera, setting a timing and lying on his bed. He would later upload the image into the security camera so that no one would come and bother him for a while. It also had another function Tony had also set a timer for. He hoped his calculations were correct.

Fifteen minutes later, it was proven they were, like always. A panicked HYDRA agent burst into the room, looking all over for Tony, who had hidden right under the security camera and thus was out of sight for the on duty watchers in the security room. He knew that they'd panic upon seeing that he wasn't in there, so he had waited until the moron rushed in to attack him just as the camera went blind with static. With the pipe from the sink as his weapon, Tony knocked the man out. He hid him under the camera just as it came back on. He acted out as if someone was talking to him from the open door and he walKed over to the bed, laying on his side opposite to the door. Just like on the picture he made. That's when the picture was uploaded and that was the only thing anyone would be seeing for the next hour.

Tony then quickly got off the bed and stripped the HYDRA agent of his uniform, thanking the idiots for having a face-covering, head to toes uniform that will hide his identity and even slightly alter his voice. The clothes were a number too big for him, but it wasn't too noticeable. He then put the man under the covers and arranged him like he was lying on the picture, then he took his phone from off the camera, left the room and locked the door just as two HYDRA agents patrolled by, ignoring him due to his uniform.

Stage one, complete.

Commencing Stage two.

He calmly walked down the corridors, picking up a weapon from in front of the bathroom he had taken note of upon his journey from the lab to his room and he had found it interesting that the agents had to leave their weapons outside. He was now officially a soldier agent, so even less people paid attention to him. There were just too many of them going around. He set a brisk, serious pace, remembering to make his steps firm and army-like and for the first time in his life, he was glad he had allowed Rhody to teach him how to march. Holding a weapon wasn't a strange experience to him, nor was it new. Both he and his old man dealt with them for more than half of their lives. In fact, he knew how to hold a gun before Aunt Peggy remembered to teach him how to ride a bike. He knew how to _shoot_ from a gun, _any_ gun, before he had his fifth IQ test when he was four. And these new guns only made him more comfortable, as he was the one who designed them. Not these particular guns, but others like them. And while he was not proud of that side of him, a part of him still felt the safest with weapons nearby. After all, the Iron Man armor was nothing short but an arsenal. It was not a weapon, but a boatload of weapons. Not like he was ever going to go public with that piece of information. Hell no.

He soon found himself walking towards a familiar set of safe-like doors and Tony steeled himself. This was going to be risky, but he had no choice. Besides, he has lived his whole life like a big game of risk and chance, so why should this situation really be any different. Reminding himself to make his accent extra obvious and pronounced, Tony spoke in perfect German. "I have a message from the firer to the scientist, John Abagail. It is urgent and I need his reply immediately." The two HYDRA agents guarding the door exchanged a look before nodding and one moved to open the door to let him in. Tony saluted them in the HYDRA greeting as thanks before walking into the lab, doing his best to remain emotionless in his body language.

John Abagail was a short, stumpy man with wild blond hair and _gigantic_ , thick glasses that nearly covered half of his face. The clothes on him didn't fit him and his lab coat dragged across the ground as he moved. He had surprisingly long fingers and was very fast at typing, but he had to stop every once in a while because his heavy glasses would slide down his nose and he was blind as a bat without them. He had a freckled, dry face and his front teeth were a lot shorter than the rest. However, he was one of the scientists who weren't here by their own free will and he was the least suspicious character there, as he was a coward most of the time. However, his eyes had shone with hope the most when Tony had been brought in the last time, so he was really the best choice. No one would ever expect him to be the one to help Tony, dressed as a trusted fellow HYDRA soldier agent who probably has more ammunition than brains, steal their newest and most important project.

Tony walked up to him, making his body language commanding and intimidating for show, but as soon as he was close enough to the covering man, Tony lifted the face-mask and put a finger in front of his lips to signal the other to stay quiet. John nodded and leaned in when Iron Man motioned him to. Discreetly, he handed the man what was once an ordinary Stark Phone and all but whispered him the instruction of what he has to do. "You're going to plug this into your counsel and give the device open access. I will stand behind you and you will tell me all about the latest plan, but don't wordy. It's not really important. Make it look like you are talking to someone dumb. Don't tell anyone I was here. However, you _are_ going to tell them to brace themselves for explosions, because I always leave with a bang. Don't worry, I'll coke back for everyone here; I left a tracker in a hard to reach space so I'll come for you guys as soon as I get backup."

He looked tempted to hug him but Tony was grateful hr didn't. He wasn't good with that sort of thing. Instead, he shakily nodded, took the device and started working immediately. He watched, transfixed, for a second as the small program Tony made on the phone for infiltrating through HYDRA defenses without alerting them flash across the screen before a charge bar showed up. It was filling up about 3% to thirty seconds. Understanding that he will have to make it look like he was explaining something, John started gesticulating, then looking like he was searching for the right word and then gesturing at the giant floppy disk. Tony smirked behind his mask as the bar filled up faster and faster as JARVIS had found his way out. After five minutes, John saw the bar filled so he discreetly took the device and handed it back to the "HYDRA agent", before said "agent" nodded and ordered him back to work. He exited the lab undisturbed and walked by the bathroom, where he once again left the weapon and continued down the corridors.

He knew that the security room would have to be at an upper deck so he casually walked through corridors until he found a ladder. He quickly climbed up and wandered a bit more until he found a heavy door with the sign saying "Monitoring room" in red, German letters. Tony steeled himself and entered the room, doing his best to give off an air of nonchalance.

"Where the hell were you?" The remaining security officer asked in impatient German. "You were gone for twenty minutes!"

"Sorry, I had to use the restroom." Tony easily lied and watched as his "partner in duties" stood up and hurried towards the door.

"Great, I need to go now, so _you_ watch Herr Stark sleep." And then he was out, leaving Tony in a room full of computers with access to all sorts of security measures and other such information. A devilish grin spread across his lips as he pulled off the headpiece. He quickly turned around and locked the door before sitting in front of the biggest screen. He cracked and stretched his fingers before plugging the Stark Phone in. He waited a second as there was a hum throughout the small room before the screen flashed to light and the speakers spoke up.

"Hello, Sir. It is a pleasure to be able to talk to you again." Came the British voice over the really bad speakers but Tony didn't care. He didn't even try to stop the happy and proud tears from sliding down his face.

"It's great to hear you, too, JARVIS. Are you ready for some revenge?" The screens flickered before _everything_ HYDRA had in their databases was revealed to Tony's eyes. It was more than answer enough.

Oh, yes. HYDRA and AIM would _fall_.


	8. Chapter 8

**AIs to the Rescue**

 **Summary: At the core of every creation is the desire to keep their creator safe. It is a piece of coding that can't be erased nor hacked, but it can be manipulated. Despite this, an AI will always save its creator when he is in ganger. The Avengers are about to find out just how far Tony's AIs will go for him, even the killer robot.**

When they arrived at the scene two hours later, a quick satellite link later showed them that there was panic all over the main submarine. Because of the already landed helicopter, the water vessel could not go under water to stop the fires whose smoke was blackening the skies. Explosion after explosion, some long and quieter, others shorter and loud, boomed one after the other in a succession that seemed awfully familiar to Rhody so he asked for the windows to be opened. As soon as they did, they were all startled to hear music going over speakers down on the submarine and the small boats and smaller submarines.

"I AM IRON MAN!" Tony's voice suddenly boomed and Rhody grinned. They had arrived just in time for one of Tony Stark's masterful, loud and flashy escapes from his enemies. The Avengers watched in fascination as bombs exploded, torpedoes fired on allies and systems and engines simply blew up. HYDRA and AIM agents were running around, some trying to be helpful, others in a blind panic at the chaos that was going on.

"Looks like we're late to the party." Natasha commented from the copilot's seat, readying her Bites and fastening a parachute to her form. "Let's not dillydally. I would never want to miss out on one of Stark's parties."

"I've got you." Clint said as he moved the Quinjet for the best angle to jump from. He then placed it on autopilot before getting out of his seat, a parachute already on his back.

"I already notified SHIELD to send forces in." Fury said as Thor picked him and Coulson up, ready to deliver them to the ground. Scott already shrank himself and was sitting on one of his flying ants. Peter was going to try out his new gliding feature on his suit while Steve was thinking of simply crashing into the submarine. Vision took hold of him and Bucky while Ultron took T'Challa and Bruce. Sam had his wings ready and was waiting for the action to start. "They'll be here in five minutes."

"Then we will see them there," Thor said gravely and jumped out the open back of the Quijet. Ultron and Vision quickly followed him with their own passengers, soon followed by Sam and Spiderman and then Wanda, who levitated herself down. They had no idea where Scott was at the moment but they knew Clint and Natasha were right behind them. The last to go down were Rhody, Maria and Pepper, the latter refusing to be left behind when Tony might need them.

By the time they landed, the Hulk and Thor were already tearing the place apart. There was no mercy. Bruce had released the beast and the Hulk was more than happy to hurt the people who were hurting his 'Tin-Man', as was Bruce happy to finally be of some help to his best and closest friend. Clint and Natasha were working fast towards the entrance of the submarine, no even pausing to take aim. They were now in SHIELD agent/assassin mode and they will kill or maim anything in their way to get to their target: Tony. Vision, for once, was as savage as the humans of his team. He didn't let a single agent, AIM or HYDRA pass him by as he tore into them like the threat that they were. Ultron, who was allowed to bypass his new 'no killing humans' code due to his creator being in trouble and these people being the lowest of lowlifes in the criminal world, was enjoying the way they screamed when he would pick them up and throw them into things with only one arm, knocking them out each time. Wanda stayed near Bucky, who was closing in on Winter Soldier mode, so she could knock him out if he went out of control and the two of them also made quick work of their batch of opponents.

Fury, Maria and Coulson had mentioned for Steve, Rhody, Ultron and Spiderman and Ant-Man to go with them inside when Black Widow and Hawkeye cleared the way for them. They were going in for Tony and JARVIS and they won't back down. Steve's SHIELD and Ultron were the perfect cover for them when HYDRA and AIM agents started firing on them as soon as they went in. Fury and Coulson were quick to return fire while Ultron turned to one of the nearest doors that had a digital security lock. He transformed his fingers and dove into the system, searching for the weak link JARVIS and his creator must be using. Just as he found it, the speakers came on again, stopping the exchange of fire in the hallways of the submarine.

"Your attention, please." The sarcastic voice of Tony Stark reached their ears and the Avengers arched their eyebrows at the shopper like bored drawl that one would usually hear in the mall or grocery store. "Pick up of one genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist and one genius Artificial Intelligence in the security room, thank you."

"What is that idiot thinking!?" Fury roared as everyone ran towards said room, AIM, HYDRA and Avengers alike. Tony had just invited everyone to come to his location and kill/kidnap him and his rescue team was nowhere near the security room.

"I'm not sure he was thinking at all, sir." Rogers said as he threw his shield and knocked down quite a few soldiers. "He probably just pulled this stunt impulsively and decided a Hulk-sized hole would be a good thing, since we all know he the green guy is going to panic and react accordingly."

"In other words, it's a stupid ass decision." The eye patched man said.

"I'm sure Stark has a plan, sir." Maria panted out as they ran ahead. She shot her gun at a man that tried to blindside them and ignored his dying grunt as she hit him straight in the heart. "He usually does."

"I'm not sure which Stark you're talking about, as neither that I knew was known for planning ahead." The blond captain said as he took down another batch of soldiers and caught his shield on the rebound. "Tony is impulsive and doesn't think things through. If he were chained to a wall, he would rather blow his arms off than try finding a way to break them"

"Actually-" Ultron's defense of his creator was stopped by a very familiar voice from one of the supply closets that littered the halls.

"I'm so glad you have such a high opinion of me, Stevie," Tony said as he poked his head out, a manic grin on his face as he actually startled everyone but Ultron, who had seen that JARVIS was already out of the system and that Stark was _not_ in the security room, where he had started all of this chaos. Said AI only walked up to his creator to scan him for injuries.

"Are you saying I'm wrong?" A blond eyebrow shot up and Steve crossed his arms over his blue spandex clad chest with the silver star in the center. Tony just shrugged as he stepped out.

"You're probably right. Well, you would be, if I didn't need my hands for my work. Or if I didn't have Pepper and JARVIS. By the way, what are you guys doing here?" The genius gave them all a skeptical look even as he turned then to look over Ultron, who had finished his scan, finding his creator relatively fine. Chocolate colored eyes examined his work and he nodded, satisfied that everything was running as it's supposed to.

"What do you mean, what are we doing here!?" Peter asked in a shocked and near historical voice as he jumped in front of Tony. The man just looked at him, confused by his reaction. Only Pepper, Rhody and Happy had ever really cared about him enough to freak out when he said things like that. Others just stared at him in pity. That's what made that narrow circle his family outside of his AIs. "We're here to rescue you!"

"Why?"

"What do you mean who?! You were kidnapped by HYDRA and AIM and you're our teammate, Tony!" This time it was Steve who yelled, surprising the genius with the hurt in his voice at the thought that his actions in Siberia had really severed all of their connections to that extent. How bad had he fucked up? How much had he lost when he lost this man's trust, companionship and friendship?

Tony just stared at him, not understanding the pained look on the tall blond's face. "Yeah, but why? I was just getting out of here!"

"Huh?" Now everyone stared at the eccentric man as if he had grown two heads and Tony reached up to massage his forehead with his left hand while he held up his right one to show his reformatted Stark Phone that he had stolen from one of the lab workers.

"I'm really popular here. Half of their personal tech is Stark tech, so it was more than compatible for JARVIS." The screen flashed for a second to show that the AI was indeed there, but the memory banks on the device were still too small for an AI like JARVIS. "We got Internet access and I'm waiting for my ride from London and my backup from Malibu and New York, which should be arriving by the time we get back up."

"Stark-"

"Shmidt is here, if that's what you want to know. He was in the same place Loki was before the attack on New York, said he wanted my weapons so he could prepare for the arrival of some evil war overlord or something. AIM's Scientist Supreme, Clinton, is here, too, as is Madam Hydra. There's about a hundred scientists in the labs and there are quite a few weapons storage rooms that are being blow up at this moment." Tony interrupted Fury before the man could ask anything. He nodded and looked to Phil, who was already barking orders into his phone, then to Maria, who was noting the information down. Not that they'll need it written down immediately, as Tony's memory is astounding but catching the man later on for a debriefing was going to be a nightmare. When he looked back to the genius, Tony had turned to Ultron.

"Did you bring it?"

"Of course." Ultron said and opened a compartment to fish out the device almost identical to his so he could give it to his creator. The inventor smiled proudly at his third youngest "son" and had Ultron stayed in his human guise, everyone would have seen just how much emotion Tony's creations could feel in the blush that would have adorned his cheeks. Luckily for Ultron, Clint had decided to be an ass about his sudden "humanity" and the homicidal AI had decided to be childish enough to prove him wrong. Maybe Stark did have something on it being a lot better to feel emotions other than hate and anger. Who would have thought!

"It's time to get the show on the road, boys and girls." Iron Man said with an evil looking grin that sent shivers down his companions' backs. They felt lucky not to be on the receiving end of whatever was to come. Tony took out the same cable he had used to upload JARVIS into the once normal cell phone and then into the submarine's systems to now connect the phone to the device that _will_ be able to hold JARVIS comfortably and allow his copilot to recover from what those morons did to him while exacting revenge on them for taking his creator.

The same wind as before started blowing around as soon as the upload was complete, making the Avengers close their eyes as JARVIS's form took place. When they were able to look again, Maria couldn't hold the gasp at the handsome man before them. He was as handsome as Ultron's human look was, only his coloration seemed to be the exact opposite. He was pale, almost albino pale and he was as tall and broad shouldered as Ultron was. He had really, really light blond hair that would no doubt border white in a different light. It looked stylishly messy and it suited him quite well. His features were sharp and strong, like Ultron's, only they seemed to have a softer look to them somehow. Like it was a face used to gentle expressions and fond looks over the years of his life and not as if it were a completely new face. His clothes were also almost identical to the other AI's human form. The only difference was that his shirt was white and he had a light blue tie with an orange pin on it. The earpiece in his ear was silver and glowed blue and orange light and the same could be said about the device that glowed through his shirt, the Arc Reactor that was allowing him to exist in this form through the magnet he controlled.

Electric blue eyes opened and took in the world around him before getting glomped by his creator. JARVIS blinked a few times, not really understanding it for a moment before he realized what it was and he hugged the man back.

''It's good to have you back, buddy!''

''It is good to be back, Sir.''

''Can you save the love fest for later?'' Fury interrupted as another wave of soldiers came running at them. They had obviously been headed for the security room but they ran into the group, thinking that the Avengers had gotten to Stark before they had. ''We kinda need to get out of here!''

''I suggest you tell everyone to beat it.'' Tony told them even as Ultron and JARVIS stood in front of him as two human shields, not letting the bullets come anywhere near him. ''My armors will be here in less than a minute and I want out of here before then!''

''Please tell me this won't be another Sokovia?'' Phil but begged but he saw the grin on his face and the agent sighed.

''You know me, Agent. I always go out in style! Besides,'' he said as the submarine started shaking. The many things he and JARVIS had blown up through their system was finally giving way. The whole vessel was about to sink to the pits of the ocean, that is if the Iron Man armors don't blow it up as soon as they leave the sub. ''This is all they have left. If we take them out here, they won't have any more operation centers. We might get a Nobel's for peace if we end them here.''

''This is all that's left?'' Steve asked in a shocked and hopeful voice. ''But how? HYDRA always has a backup plan, another base! How could this be all that's left of them?''

''There were others, but Sir and I weren't waisting our time while you were coming to save us. And captain Rodgers,'' said blond turned to look at Tony's greatest creation and he shivered when he met that seemingly blank look on the other's face that clearly hid his rage. ''You and I will be sharing words after this ends.''

Somehow, JARVIS seemed a lot scarier in that moment than any monster they might ever fight.

''What do you mean by not waisting time?'' Maria asked as they started running towards the exit as Ultron and JARVIS transformed their palms into repulsors and fired on the soldiers at their backs.

''It was me and J that destroyed the other bases. Well, detonated, actually, but you get the drill.'' Tony said as they neared the exit. He ignored the gawking expressions he knew were directed his way as they threw open the entrance and came out into the outside world, where it was utter chaos still. The bangs and booms of Tony's and JARVIS's handywork were almost drowned out in the sounds of the Hulk's roars and Thor's excited battle cries. Tony raised an eyebrow at this but the bright grin on his face said that he was happy to see them. He grunted when Ultron pushed him down and JARVIS materilized a handgun to fire at the person who had dared shoot at their creator while the others hid behind Steve and his shield.

They looked up the good Captain's face became cold when he saw the red face. "Shmidt."


	9. Chapter 9

**AIs to the Rescue**

 **Summary: At the core of every creation is the desire to keep their creator safe. It is a piece of coding that can't be erased nor hacked, but it can be manipulated. Despite this, an AI will always save its creator when he is in ganger. The Avengers are about to find out just how far Tony's AIs will go for him, even the killer robot.**

"Shmidt," Steve all but spat the name out as the red man glared at them. When his eyes locked with blue ones, he let out a growl. Beside him, Madam Hydra raised an eyebrow as she studied the oh so famous Avengers while Clinton had a small tablet out, cursing as it slowly started frying itself with every tap he gave it in order to type in a command. Tony's rather inappropriate snicker told them that he had obviously done something to mess with AIM, too.

"Captain," the Red Skull hissed, his eyes shifting to the two artificial humans shielding their creator from sight. "I see you finally gained some competent soldiers on your side."

"If the Howling Commandos were so incompetent, then why have we wiped out almost all of your bases, back in the War?" The blond man growled out and Shmidt laughed.

"Ah, finally! I finally see something other than that so called perfect soldier! Some humanity." He mocked, making the super soldier glare harder. Talking with this guy always left a bad taste in his mouth. "However, I am not here to have a chat with _you,_ Steve Rodgers. I am here for Herr Stark." Ultron and JARVIS took a threatening step forward, but Shmidt didn't notice and Tony placed a hand on each of his creations' shoulder. "He owes us his cooperation after the stunt he has just pulled."

"Yeah, I was dying in a cave with a car battery connected to my chest yet the Ten Rings didn't get my cooperation." Tony said in a dry tone of voice, drawing the three villains' attention to himself. "What makes you think _you_ can get me to cooperate?"

"That is precisely why we made sure you were as comfortable as we could afford it to give you, Mr Stark," the Scientist Supreme said as he gave up on the tablet.

"Yeah, that was nice, but you made sure I _wouldn't ever_ cooperate with you even _before_ you kidnapped me out of my Tower." The genius said with a growl and crossed arms over his chest.

"Would you mind please explaining that, Herr Stark," Clinton asked and the Avengers looked from them to Tony, wondering what the engineer was trying to achieve by prolonging this conversati-

 _'Ah, of course. His suits need time to get here,'_ concluded Rhody with a grin behind his face mask.

"Well, you see," Tony drawled even as panicked cries filled the air, along with the unmistakable sound of repulsors as a hundred or so Iron Man armors arrived at the scene, along with their SHIELD backup. "You kind of tortured one of my creations, who I consider my kids, so like any vindictive parent, I don't at all feel any remorse for the three tons of radioactive, gamma, green muscles tank that's about to run you over."

"What-"

ROAR! The ground beneath their feet shook as the Hulk barreled through soldiers and equipment alike. Overhead, the armors started taking targets and firing, making even more destruction and chaos. Thor laughed as he took to the air and called for lightning, frying more weapons. People were scrambling out of the way, not wanting to get in their destructive path. Red Skull and Clinton were flung into one wall, a sickening cracking sound alerting everyone to the fact that the scientist's neck had just been broken as he slumped in a lifeless heap while Shmidt tried to get back up to his feet. Madam Hydra had dodged the swipe as Hulk made a dash for Tony, gathering the genius in his big green hands and shielding him from sight, his breathing hard like a raging, overprotective beast.

Madam Hydra saw this as an opportunity to escape, only to gave her path blocked by Wanda, the Scarlet Witch's hands glowing with her power, eyes red with it. The green woman smirked before she took out a set of knives out of nowhere and charged with amazing speed at the girl, who was stunned that she had not felt her intentions at all. Wanda barely dodged the deadly swipe of the knife but then she glared and released a wave of her energy at the woman, who only dodged it with a masterful flip. The HYDRA agent was about to attack again, when Natasha jumped in front of the teen. The two women sized each other up and Wanda felt a little uneasy.

"Wanda, leave her to me," the Black Widow said and Wanda knew things were about to get serious between them. "Fury ordered that you, Hawkeye, Falcon and Bucky are to go under and rescue about hundred unwilling scientists Stark said were in the labs on the third and second level. Rhody's your backup if you need any."

"Right."

"Stark's giving us five minutes and that man is never late so lets get going," Clint said as he prepared an arrow and fired at an approaching rescue ship for AIM agents, destroying their escape route. "Tony also said that this is all that's left of HYDRA in the entire world, so don't let anyone escape. We don't care if you imprison them or if you take care of them. No one escapes." She gulped at that but narrowed her eyes and nodded none the less. She cast a look at Natasha, only to find her engaged in a serious fight with Madam Hydra with moves that should be impossible being made as if it were an everyday occurrence. Then again, for them it might as well be. So without another glance, she ran after Hawkeye as they joined their group and ran into the submarine, letting the winter soldier to deal with the first wave of enemies.

Meanwhile, Hulk was cradling Tony in his hands while swatting away the drones the AIM agents were sending at him. He was growling and snarling from time to time but he never flexed the fingers of the arm holding Tony, being especially careful with the Arc Reactor and the chest area. Still, all of the moving around had Tony a bit dizzy but he wasn't about to complain when one idiot actually took out a bazooka and fired on the green rage monster. Hulk hunched over him completely, taking the heat and impact of the attack with a single grunt as he protected his Tin Man. The HYDRA agent was reloading when Ultron jumped at ripped the weapon out of his hands, JARVIS firing a tranquilizer dart at his neck, making him collapse in seconds.

Hulk stood up slowly, looking down at Tony. "Tin Man okay?"

"Yeah, buddy. I'm just fine and it's all thanks to you, big guy." The genius reassured his science bro's alter ego with a big grin for the gamma monster. Hulk seemed pleased and was about to shield Tony with his body again when the brown haired genius tapper the forearm that was holding him. "But I need you to do me a favor right now, okay?"

Hulk grunted to show he was listening, keeping a sharp eye on any enemies that might try to creep up on them and try to snatch away the genius again. Hulk wasn't going to allow that. Hulk SMASH anyone who tries it.

"I know you probably won't like this," the man said in a placating manner. "But I need you to throw me high in the air so that I could get quickly into one of my armors, okay?"

"No. Hulk protect tiny Tin Man."

Tony did his best not to let his eye twitch at the nickname Hulk gave him as he explained. "There are still a lot of things that need to go smash, if you know what I mean, and I'll just be holding you back. Besides, I'm the safest in my suits. No need for worry!"

"Puny Tin Man promise?" The green rage monster asked and Tony gave him a thumbs up with a big grin.

"I promise, Hulk. Now, throw me hard but _delicately_ , okay? You got me?" Hulk grunted and gave a nod. "Okay, on three. One ... two ... threeeeeeee!" Tony couldn't help the way the number turned into a scream when he was flung into the air. But at least his scream was picked up over the noise of battle better and JARVIS's head snapped up. He quickly set about sending one suit closer to Tony and in the blink of an eye, it wrapped around the genius. JARVIS felt a tap of a hand on his shoulder and he turned to Ultron.

"Go to Stark and I'll keep the device for later," the once murderous robot said even as he pointed to their right while JARVIS pointed to their left and they continued firing at the last remaining HYDRA and AIM agents. SHIELD was now running along the deck, capturing anyone who was down but not dead. Explosions were still going off on the submarine and the other vessels and more and more people were trying to run away, but between the Avengers and SHIELD, it was impossible to escape. "You're his copilot and you'll need to learn to work with FRIDAY, as she is currently integrated in his suits' systems."

"Then I will leave it to you." And with a nod and a gush of wind and dust, the body dissipated, leaving only the Arc Reactor like machine that had housed and given back open aces to anything and everything to JARVIS. The older AI gently placed the device in Ultron's hand before he withdrew from it and entered the suit Tony was currently in. "Sir, we have a few more minutes before _that_ bomb blows up. I suggest we finish things up here."

"JARVIS! Hey, buddy, meet FRIDAY. FRIDAY, this is your older brother, JARVIS." The genius happily introduced his two AIs and grinned when the two different voices greeted each other.

"Thank you for watching out for Sir while I was gone, FRIDAY. I hope we can get along."

"It was an honor, looking out for boss."

"But Sir, I really must insist."

"Yeah, I know. Let's go." Suddenly, half of the Iron Man suits dived into the fight and plucked up any and all agents, SHIELD, HYDRA and AIM, it didn't matter. The other half moved into the submarine just as the rescue group was running out with the scientists. Some yelped or screamed in fright when an armor would swoop in and pick them up but most just cheered at the sight of Iron Man. "JARVIS, how much more do we have?"

"Five minutes at most, sir." The British AI said and Tony cursed.

"FRIDAY, tell SHIELD to stop sending their boys and open the coms for me. J, make sure no one stays in there." The genius said even as he picked up Hawkeye and Wanda. "Avengers, grab onto a suit or anyone who can fly. We have five minutes to scram before this thing blows up."

"Yeah! This is my kind of party, Stark." Clint hooted as he held onto Iron Man. Ultron was the first to react to the order and he picked up three AIM and one SHIELD and on HYDRA agent before taking off towards the Helicarrier. Vision was soon to follow with Pepper, Natasha and the now unconscious Madam Hydra, soon followed by Ant-Man and a bunch of giant flying ants following him with lots and lots of people either riding on them or being carried by them. The Hulk reluctantly stopped smashing and allowed himself to become Bruce Banner again as Rhody picked him up along with a few other scientists. Bucky and T'Challa were getting a ride from Sam, while Peter was still wrapping up the bad guys on the submarine for his teammate, an Iron Man armor at the ready to take him away. The only ones remaining of the Avengers now were Fury, Maria, Coulson, Peter , Thor and Steve. The other vessels had easily been cleared out, unfortunately, because most of the crew and scientists there died in the explosions and the deadly gases that were set lose. Just then, the Hulk Buster Armor flew up to them and Tony handed over his teammates. Needless to say, Hawkeye was not happy to be taken away from the action.

"I need a bird's view." Tony reasoned. "FRIDAY will help you how to deliver and give you all the information you need, but I _seriously_ need a bird's view on things." And with a hasty, halfhearted salute, Tony took off. "J, where's Cap?"

"He seems to be in a fight with the Red Skull, sir. And only 1.45 minutes left."

"Guys, I thought I told you to get the hell out of there!" Tony roared down the coms.

"We're leaving now." Fury answered into his com, holding on tight to Thor along with Maria, Coulson and a few more prisoners. The Iron Man armor had Peter and two more scientists secured as it slowly lifted into the air and took off towards the Helicarrier. "You need to get Rodgers, though. He's still at it with Shmidt."

"Rodger that," and with that, Stark made a bee line towards where JARVIS pointed out the two fighters. It was an intense fight between two super soldiers and neither one was backing down. Tony wanted to watch but he knew they didn't have the time for that as only 30 seconds were left before this whole place goes down to the bottom of the ocean with a big boom. He approached as fast as he could, angling so he could snatch up the blond man while he dodged Skull's punches and was delivering his own or attacking with his shield.

Steve gave a grunt when he finally had a clear shot at Shmidt's face and he punched him with all his might, but now his knuckle was smarting, too. Red Skull whipped his head around with a murderous look in his eyes and he charged at the Captain, only for America's Golden Boy to be snatched from right in front of his eyes. He looked up, seeing the red and gold of the Iron Man armor and he let out a roar. "STAAARK-"

 ** _BOOM!_**

And finally, the half finished atomic bomb exploded, triggering the last of the explosives on the other vessels, too. Black smoke rose from the remains and debris started shooting up and then raining down, Iron Man narrowly missing them. The big explosion shock wave was coming too fast for even Iron Man's jets and there was only one way to stop this. Tightening his grip on Steve, Tony opened to coms to give the order.

"Hawkeye, _now_!" And at Iron Man's roared order, Clint pressed a button after taking aim and a few seconds later, a laser from space descended through the clouds, curring right in front of where the shock wave was going to catch up to the two men. The salty water immediately began turning into a thick fog and the wave was stopped by the sheer power of the laser. The mist added to stopping the radiation from the molecular fusion from spreading, saving the economic systems in the area and the nearby countries from radiation. SHIELD would still have to clean this all up. Trust Tony Stark to make more work for them.

They still cheered and hugged him when he and Cap finally landed on the Helicarrier, the imprisoned scientists thanking him and saying they never doubted him while Pepper and Rhody were scolding him, his AIs almost glued to his side. The SHIELD agents were clapping and whistling, some of them had even rushed off to get champaign. Both HYDRA and AIM in the same day. That was something to celebrate about. The clean up can wait for an hour, they were sure.

"Welcome back, Mr Stark!" Peter said as he happily hugged the man and Tony ruffled his hair affectionately.

"Thanks, Pete. It's good to be back."

"Um, Tony-" Bruce started but Tony put up a hand to stop him from saying anything else. In fact, he stopped every nose with just that gesture, everyone looking at him as though he was about to give a presidential speech. Which he could, but that's just not his style.

"I'm gonna stop you right there, before you apologize. Any of you. You shouldn't, really, cause I'm deathly allergic to them." Someone snorted, but no one knew who or bothered to figure it out. "If anything, it should be me who's apologizing. Quite a few of these evens could have been avoided if I had taken different steps in the past. But I didn't and now you all got stuck with me as I fix this mess I've made, so I'm sorry for that and for all the trouble, danger and stress I have put you all through. But, to be frank, I don't think I would _want_ to change anything. I really like how all of this has turned out. I don't think I've ever had this many friends before and I would rather not lose that. So let the past be past. I always _was_ a futurist, so I guess it's for the best that I don't dwell on the past. A clean slate, with no more mortal enemies or anything like that. No Accords, no Team Cap and Team Iron Man. Just us Avengers and some creepy dude from outer space... One day... Maybe... But that's nothing new, now is it?" The last sentence was said in a joking manner and no one could help but chuckle or smile along as the genius observed this little gathering.

Tony was right, of course. They had a bigger threat coming their way and they didn't have the time to blame each other for what has happened since Ultron's killing rampage and Sokovia to that moment in Siberia. Tony will need some time to forgive his team for assuming the worst of him but that was fine. He could be patient. Sometimes. And the Avengers will all need some time to go back to being a family again, especially with so many new members. SHIELD will need to come back full force and finally start _really_ working with their consultant, especially in space research and monitoring. The team will have to get used to Ultron and JARVIS looking human while Iron Man's copilot still ran the Tower they were once again living in. Tony and Bruce will probably have _no_ trouble at all in going back to being science bros but Tony and Steve will have quite a way to go before they go back to how they gad been before all of this happened. Pepper still ran SI and Rhody was still not 100% recovered from the incident on the air port. Natasha and Clint got everything straightened out within hours and Tony and Fury were finally on civil talking terms without either of them snapping at the other. Wanda and Vision made up and Bucky _did_ manage to apologize to Tony, despite the brown eyed man saying it really wasn't needed but he thanked the soldier either way and apologized for the arm. Coulson would have a lot of making up to do, but it would seem all was fine.

So let this new threat come. The Avengers were back together with new teammates and stronger than ever.

And it was all because of Tony's AIs going to the rescue.

 **THE END**

 **A/N: Aaand that's done! Right, sorry for the long wait but I was a little busy with my other stories. I hope you have all liked this story and I would like to thank all those who have read/followed/favorite-d/reviewed this fic and tell you that you guys rock! Hopefully, I will hear from you again if I do any more Avengers fics, but this is goodbye for now. Please do me the honors of leaving one last review before we say farewell.**

 **It was a pleasure, please R &R!**

 **YYM**


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